Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy with unaccompanied refugee minors: a case series

BMC Psychiatry

Lutz Goldbeck²  Rita Rosner¹  Thorsten Sukale²  Miriam Rassenhofer²  Rima Eberle-Sejari¹  Johanna Unterhitzenberger¹ 

[1] Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt, Clinical and Biological Psychology, Ostenstrasse 25, Eichstätt, 85071, Germany;University Ulm, Clinic for Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Steinhövelstrasse 5, Ulm, 89075, Germany

关键词: PTSD;    Trauma-focused;    Treatment;    Unaccompanied;    Adolescent;    Refugee;   

Others  :  1231586
DOI  :  10.1186/s12888-015-0645-0

 received in 2015-05-01, accepted in 2015-10-12,  发布年份 2015

【 摘 要 】

Background

Unaccompanied refugee minors (URMs) are a group who are vulnerable to developing posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). However, they rarely receive the treatment that is indicated and there are no treatment studies focusing exclusively on this group of adolescents. This case study evaluates the feasibility of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) for URMs with PTSS.

Method

A health care utilization sample of N = 6 was assessed prior to and after treatment with TF-CBT. Therapists were asked to report differences in treatment application and content in comparison to TF-CBT standard protocol.

Results

We found moderate to high levels of PTSS at baseline and a clinically significant decrease in symptoms at posttest. Some modifications to the TF-CBT protocol were made with regard to affective modulation which required more sessions than usual whereas fewer caregiver sessions were conducted.

Conclusion

TF-CBT is feasible in reducing PTSS in severely traumatized URMs. Further research with controlled trials is necessary.

Trial registration

The trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier NCT01516827. Registered 13 December 2011.

【 授权许可】

   
2015 Unterhitzenberger et al.

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