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A Follow-Up Study from a Multisite, Randomized Controlled Trial for Traumatized Children Receiving TF-CBT

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Abstract

Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) is the treatment of choice for traumatized youth, however, follow-up studies are scarce, and treatment effects for co-occurring depression show mixed findings. The aims of this study were to examine whether treatment effects of TF-CBT are maintained at 18 month follow-up and whether degree of co-occurring depression influences treatment effects. As rapid improvement in psychological functioning is warranted for youth, we also investigated whether the symptom trajectory was different for TF-CBT compared to therapy as usual (TAU). The sample consisted of 156 youth (M age = 15.05, 79.50% girls) randomly assigned to TF-CBT or TAU. The youth were assessed for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), depression, anxiety and general mental health symptoms. Mixed effects analyses followed the symptom courses over 5 time points. Youth receiving TF-CBT maintained their symptom improvement at 18 months follow-up with scores below clinical cut-of on all symptom measures. The most depressed youth had also a significant decline in symptoms that were maintained at follow-up. Symptom trajectories differed as the TF-CBT group reported a more rapid symptom reduction compared to the TAU condition. In the TAU condition, participants received 1.5 times the number of treatment sessions compared to the TF-CBT participants. After 18 months the groups were significantly different on general mental health symptoms only. In conclusion, youth receiving TF-CBT experienced more efficient improvement in trauma related symptoms than youth receiving TAU and these improvements were maintained after 18 months. Also youth experiencing serious co-occurring depression benefitted from TF-CBT.

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  1. Details of these results are not shown here, but will be given upon request from the first author.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Tore Wentzel-Larsen for his supervision and advice regarding the statistical analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, PO Box 1094, Blindern, 0317, Oslo, Norway

    Tine K. Jensen

  2. Norwegian Centre for Violence and Traumatic Stress Studies, PO Box 181, Nydalen, 0409, Oslo, Norway

    Tine K. Jensen, Tonje Holt & Silje M. Ormhaug

  3. Mental & Physical health, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, PO Box 4404, Nydalen, 0403, Oslo, Norway

    Tonje Holt

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  1. Tine K. Jensen
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  3. Silje M. Ormhaug
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Correspondence to Tine K. Jensen.

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Funding

This study was founded by The Research Council of Norway (grant.no 190756), the Directorate for Health and Social Affairs, Norwegian Extra Foundation for Health and Rehabiliation. Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00635752

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interests.

Ethical Approval

All procedures were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and national research committee and with the 1964Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Jensen, T.K., Holt, T. & Ormhaug, S.M. A Follow-Up Study from a Multisite, Randomized Controlled Trial for Traumatized Children Receiving TF-CBT. J Abnorm Child Psychol 45, 1587–1597 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-017-0270-0

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