Abstract
Objective: To examine sustainability of symptom outcomes of a 1-year phase-based trauma-focused, multimodal, and multicomponent group therapy in a day treatment program for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) over an average period of 7 years. Method: Iranian and Afghan patients (N = 69) were assessed with self-rated symptom checklists for PTSD, anxiety, and depression symptoms before (T1), after (T2), and up to 11 years upon completion of the treatment (T3). A series of mixed model regression analyses was applied to determine the course of the measured symptoms over time. Results: At T2, all symptoms were reduced, but PTSD symptoms showed the strongest reduction. The trend of symptom reduction continued up to 5 years posttreatment and was similar for all the examined symptoms. After 5 years, all symptoms started to worsen, but remained under baseline levels at T3. Conclusions: The applied treatment appears to improve mental health of the studied sample on both the short and longer term.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 376-387 |
Number of pages | 12 |
Journal | Journal of Clinical Psychology |
Volume | 70 |
Issue number | 4 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Apr 2014 |
Keywords
- Asylum seekers
- Follow-up
- Group therapy
- Posttraumatic stress disorder
- Refugees
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)