Multiple session early psychological interventions for the prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder
Citation: Roberts NP, Kitchiner NJ, Kenardy J, et al. Multiple session early psychological interventions for the prevention of post‐traumatic stress disorder. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. 2019;(8):CD006869.
Language: Abstract available in EN / ES / FA / FR / ZH. Plain language summary available in EN / ES / FA / FR / MS / ZH. Full text available in EN.
Free to view: Yes.
Funding sources: National Institute for Health Research (UK).
What is this? Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition that can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event. Psychological therapies, including early multiple-session psychological interventions, are used to try to prevent it.
In this Cochrane review, the authors searched for randomised trials of early multiple-session psychological interventions designed to prevent PTSD in adults. They did not restrict their searches by language of publication and did the search in March 2019. They included 27 studies (3963 participants) and included 21 of these (2721 participants) in a meta-analysis. They also identified an additional 8 ongoing studies and 12 articles that are awaiting assessment.
What was found: Multiple-session early psychological interventions may be more effective than usual care in reducing the number of people diagnosed with PTSD at 3 to 6 months follow-up, although they may be associated with a higher dropout rate than other psychological interventions (low certainty evidence).
Multiple-session early psychological interventions may make little or no difference compared to other interventions in PTSD diagnosis, reducing depression and anxiety severity, or improving general functioning at 3 to 12 months follow-up (low-certainty evidence).
The effects of multiple-session early psychological interventions immediately after treatment or at 7 to 12 months follow-up are uncertain.
Implications: The authors of the review concluded that the evidence on the use of early multiple-session psychological interventions following traumatic events to prevent PTSD is not strong enough to recommend its regular use, but that studies that were ongoing at the time of the review might make the evidence body stronger.
Other considerations: The authors of the review did not discuss their findings in the context of issues relating to health equity.
This summary was prepared by Catherine Haynes, checked by Cristián Mansilla, and finalized by Mike Clarke.