NCJ Number
230791
Journal
Child Abuse and Neglect Volume: 34 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2010 Pages: 284-288
Date Published
April 2010
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This study examined a Stabilizing Group Treatment protocol, designed for the management of the long-term sequelae of child abuse.
Abstract
This study indicates both the feasibility and the efficacy of stabilizing treatment in Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Complex PTSD) related to childhood abuse as an adjunct to routine individual treatment. The completers' effect sizes on Davidson Trauma Scale (DTS) and Borderline Personality Disorder Severity Index (BPDSI) are large in this Complex PTSD population and comparable to effect sizes achieved in simple PTSD populations. The results on PTSD and borderline symptoms are not only statistically significant, but also clinically meaningful, and improvement was found to be stable throughout follow-up. A similar pattern was observed in the intention-to-treat analysis. While dissociative symptoms did improve according to the criteria of Structured Interview of Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES); 61 percent no longer met criteria for the dissociative feature (memory/attention). This improvement was not reflected in the Dissociative Experience Scale (DES) data, possibly due to the lack of a specific time frame in the DES questionnaire. The study population was early and severely poly-victimized in childhood as well as frequently re-victimized in adulthood and suffered from severe co-morbidity on DSM-IV Axis I and II. Although the study population suffered from an even higher level of psychopathology compared to other severely ill traumatized populations, PTSD symptom levels decreased to a similar extent. Data were collected from 36 patients with a history of childhood abuse. Tables and references