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Background Traumatic experiences can lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For young children, even minor, inconspicuous looking events can lead to posttraumatic stress symptoms. Trauma-focused treatment with Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) offers children an age-adapted intervention to help them successfully process traumatic experiences. So far, there has been a lack of well evaluated trauma-focused treatments for young children. Methods These case series examine the effectiveness of a short-term treatment with EMDR therapy for children showing PTSD symptoms after experiencing a single incident induced trauma. Five children between 5 and 10 years of age who developed PTSD after a single incident trauma received a manualized EMDR treatment for 6 weeks (mean number of sessions: seven including a mean number of EMDR sessions: 3.4). Posttraumatic stress symptoms were assessed prior to treatment, following treatment and at a 3-month follow-up with standardized instruments for caregivers and children. Results PTSD symptoms decreased for all children after completing the treatment from clinical to non-clinical level. Reductions in vegetative hyperarousal, fears and clinging behaviour were achieved. Furthermore, reductions in the parental stress levels, as well as a recovery of everyday routine and everyday stability were observed. Conclusion Short-term EMDR treatment appears to be a promising treatment for single incident trauma in young children providing a potentially successful quick and safe psychological treatment for children. Results contribute to the knowledge of feasibility and acceptability of short-term, trauma-focused treatments of children with EMDR. Replication of the results of these case series in larger samples using a randomized controlled design is warranted.

Background The aim of this study was to investigate whether bullying among students is associated with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and whether associations are comparable to other traumatic events leading to PTSD. Methods Data were collected from 219 German children and adolescents: 150 students from grade six to ten and 69 patients from an outpatient clinic for PTSD as a comparison group. Symptoms of PTSD were assessed using the Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES) and the Posttraumatic Symptom Scale (PTSS-10). A 2 × 5 factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) with the factors gender (male, female) and group (control, conflict, moderate bullying, severe bullying, traumatized) was used to test for significant differences in reported PTSD symptoms. Results Results showed that 69 (46.0%) students from the school sample had experienced bullying, 43 (28.7%) in a moderate and 26 (17.3%) in a severe way. About 50% of the severe bullying group reached the critical cut-off point for suspected PTSD. While the scores for symptoms of PTSD were significantly higher in bullied versus non-bullied students, no significant differences were found between patients from the PTSD clinic and students who experienced severe bullying. Conclusions Our findings suggest that bullying at school is highly associated with symptoms of PTSD. Thus, prevention of bullying in school may reduce traumatic experiences and consequent PTSD development.

Fragestellung: Alpträume können bei Kindern, wie auch bei Erwachsenen, als Symptom für eine Traumatisierung gelten. Daher ist zu vermuten, dass bei traumatisierten Kindern und Jugendlichen die Alptraumbelastung höher ist als bei nicht traumatisierten Kindern und Jugendlichen. Methodik: Insgesamt nahmen 38 traumatisierte und 40 nicht traumatisierte Kinder und Jugendliche an der Untersuchung teil. Anhand eines Fragebogens wurde die Alptraumbelastung (u. a. die Alptraumhäufigkeit und die empfundene Intensität) erfasst. Ergebnisse: Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass traumatisierte Kinder und Jugendliche signifikant mehr Alpträume berichten (9.7 Alpträume pro Monat) und diese als intensiver und furchtauslösender bewerten als die Teilnehmer der Kontrollgruppe (1.7 Alpträume pro Monat). Die Anzahl der Alpträume bei traumatisierten Mädchen ist im Vergleich zu der Anzahl der Alpträume bei traumatisierten Jungen doppelt so hoch. Zudem geben traumatisierte Kinder und Jugendliche signifikant häufiger an, Angst vor einer Traumwiederholung zu haben, sich während des Alptraums hilflos und sich am Tag durch den Traum nachhaltig beeinträchtigt zu fühlen. Schlussfolgerung: Patienten mit einer Traumatisierung erleben in ihren Träumen mehr Gewalt und Lebensbedrohung. Eine erhöhte Alptraumbelastung ist damit auch bei Kindern und Jugendlichen ein Merkmal einer vorausgegangenen Traumatisierung.