1. Is only one cognitive technique also effective? Results from a randomized controlled trial of two different versions of an internet-based cognitive behavioural intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder in Arabic-speaking countries.
- Author
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Böttche M, Wagner B, Vöhringer M, Heinrich M, Stein J, Selmo P, Stammel N, and Knaevelsrud C
- Subjects
- Adult, Africa, Depression psychology, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Middle East, Quality of Life psychology, Self Report, Arabs statistics & numerical data, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Internet-Based Intervention, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic ethnology, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic therapy
- Abstract
Background: Internet-based cognitive-behavioural interventions seem to be effective for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Arabic-speaking countries in the MENA region. However, due to high prevalence rates of trauma-related mental disorders in this region, it is important to scale up existing Internet-based interventions in order to increase the number of clients., Objective: The aim of the study was to examine whether a brief Internet-based intervention with one cognitive technique (TF-short, 6 assignments) results in the same PTSD symptom change and lower dropouts compared to a longer intervention with two cognitive techniques (TF-reg, 10 assignments)., Method: A total of 224 Arab participants (67.4% female; M = 25.3 years old) with PTSD were randomly assigned to Internet-based CBT with either a TF-reg protocol ( n = 110) or a TF-short protocol ( n = 114). Symptoms of PTSD and secondary outcomes (anxiety, depression, somatic complaints, quality of life) were self-assessed online at baseline and post-treatment. Treatment-associated changes were estimated using multigroup latent difference score models., Results: The overall PTSD score assessed with the PDS decreased by about 15 points in both conditions. The between-group differences (TF-reg vs. TF-short) at post-assessment were non-significant, Δ = 0.29, p = .896, d = 0.02, 95% CI [-0.30, 0.34]. Like the primary outcome, all within-group changes for the secondary outcomes throughout the intervention were statistically significant and all between-group effects were non-significant. Overall, the dropout rates did not differ between the two conditions, χ2 (1/ N = 175) = 0.83, p = .364., Conclusions: The findings suggest that the shorter condition results in the same symptom change and dropout rate as the longer condition. This highlights the potential of shorter, more scalable Internet-based interventions in socially restricted and (post-)conflict societies., Clinicaltrialsgov Id: NCT01508377., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)
- Published
- 2021
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