Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy for children: A study of process and outcome.

Children experiencing traumas, such as sexual abuse, physical abuse, domestic violence, serious accidents, and natural disasters, may develop severe mental health problems.  Taken the vast number of children that predictably will be exposed to serious traumas during their childhood and the detrimental effects such traumas may have on a child’s mental health and development, psychological treatment for this group of children is often necessary.

Although TF-CBT has been studied in several randomized controlled trials, few trials have been conducted in community clinics, few have used therapy as usual (TAU) as a comparison group, and none have been conducted outside of the United States.

The study’s overall aim is to contribute to our understanding on what may be helpful methods for treating severely traumatized youth. More specifically the study examined the short and long-term effects of TF-CBT on children exposed to serious trauma, and moderating factors of treatment outcome. We wished to examine whether TF-CBT results in better outcomes for traumatized youths than the treatment that is commonly provided in regular clinical practice in Norwegian mental health clinics.  

In this effectiveness study a randomized control design (RCT) was used. One hundred and fifty-six traumatized youth (mean age 15.1 years, range 10-18; 79.5% girls) were randomly assigned to TF-CBT or TAU.

The target sample is youth between the ages of 10 and 18 years who had been referred to one of eight community mental health outpatient clinics in Norway.

Research Activity:  6 Evaluation of Treatments and Therapeutic Interventions

Health Category: 10 Mental health