Evaluation of a brief cognitive-behavioral program for the prevention of chronic PTSD in recent assault victims.

The efficacy of a brief prevention program (BP) aimed at arresting the development of chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was examined with 10 recent female victims of sexual and nonsexual assault who received 4 sessions of a cognitive-behavioral program shortly after the assault. Their PTSD and depression severity was compared with that of 10 matched recent female assault victims who received repeated assessments of their trauma-related psychopathology (assessment control; AC). The BP program consisted of education about common reactions to assault and cognitive-behavioral procedures. Two months postassault, victims who received the BP program had significantly less severe PTSD symptoms than victims in the control condition; 10% of the former group met criteria for PTSD versus 70% of the latter group. Five and a half months postassault, victims in the BP group were significantly less depressed than victims in the AC group and had significantly less severe reexperiencing symptoms. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)