Studies // Cited work
Early psychological intervention following recent trauma: A systematic review and meta-analysis
Roberts, N. P., Kitchiner, N. J., Kenardy, J., Lewis, C. E., & Bisson, J. I. (2019). Early psychological intervention following recent trauma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.
Level A Systematic review doi:10.1080/20008198.2019.1695486
What this study supports
Supports the claims that no intervention showed a clinically important difference from usual care for people not screened for traumatic stress symptoms, and that trauma-focused CBT, cognitive therapy without exposure and EMDR showed clinically important benefits for people with symptoms, greatest for acute stress disorder and PTSD. Findings were rated with GRADE; the abstract does not give the ratings.
- Who was studied
- 61 randomised controlled trials of multiple-session psychological interventions beginning within three months of trauma exposure.
- Design
- Systematic review
- Level of evidence
- Syntheses of controlled studies: meta-analyses and systematic reviews of experiments and trials.
Claims that rest on it
Each claim states what the site asserts, at what strength, and with what caveat.
Early multiple-session interventions showed no clinically important benefit over usual care for trauma-exposed people not screened for symptoms, whereas trauma-focused CBT, cognitive therapy without exposure and EMDR showed clinically important benefits for people with traumatic stress symptoms; for chronic PTSD, trauma-focused CBT and EMDR reduced clinician-assessed symptoms more than waitlist or usual care.
- Scope
- Randomised trials of psychological interventions after trauma in adults.
- Caveat
- The Cochrane review rated the evidence for every comparison as very low quality, drop-out was higher in active treatments and long-term follow-up is limited; treatment choice requires clinical assessment.
Last reviewed · Review due · advice-early-trauma-help-for-symptoms