Integrative trauma-focused group therapy for PTSD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Integrative trauma-focused group therapy for survivors of early or repeated interpersonal trauma with PTSD and a history of depression
IRAS ID
203755
Contact name
Anke Karl
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Exeter
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 4 months, 17 days
Research summary
There is increasing evidence that trauma-focused treatments for PTSD patients with a history of early and/or repeated interpersonal trauma (e.g. childhood abuse) benefit from addressing deficits in effective emotion regulation and interpersonal effectiveness. Additionally, there is increasing evidence that group-based treatments for these clients may be beneficial.
Based on this and our own research on protective factors for recovery from trauma, we have therefore developed an 18-week integrative group-based trauma-focussed treatment that extends evidence-based CBT by modules addressing emotion regulation, self-compassion and interpersonal therapy for these individuals who present with PTSD and major depression. The group is designed to be delivered efficiently within the U.K. healthcare system whilst meeting the needs of individual participants through use of additional individual sessions and a mobile phone application.
The current pilot study has a number of aims. First, it investigates how acceptable integrative trauma-focused group is to clinicians and patients, and whether – for the small number of individuals included – there are clinically beneficial changes. Because the aim of future research is to investigate these beneficial changes in comparison to NICE-recommended trauma-focused CBT, the second aim of this study is therefore (a) to adapt and deliver in a UK setting the comparison treatment, a trauma-focused group CBT protocol for childhood sexual abuse survivors that has proven to be effective in the US, (b) to establish how feasible and acceptable it is to recruit suitable patients and to randomly allocate them into one of these treatments and (c) to learn about clinicians’ experiences in delivering it in a UK setting.
We plan to include up to 16 eligible clients with PTSD and major depression after a history of early and/or repeated interpersonal trauma and run an integrative trauma-focused group and an established TF-CBT group and assess patients pre-, mid, post-treatment and at 4- months follow-up.REC name
South West - Cornwall & Plymouth Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/SW/0236
Date of REC Opinion
26 Aug 2016
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion