Of the 57 eligible RCTs ( n = 4295), 51 RCTs were included in quantitative analyses
Previous meta-analyses of psychotherapies for children and adolescents with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) did not investigate whether treatment efficacy is diminished when patients report multiple (versus single) traumas.
We systematically searched PsycInfo, MEDLINE, Web of Science and PTSDpubs on and included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) meeting the following criteria: (a) random allocation; (b) all participants presented with partial or full PTSD; (c) PTSD is the priple mean age
Relative to passive control conditions, interventions were found effective for single-trauma-related PTSD (Hedges’ g = 1.09; 95% CI 0.70–1.48; k = 8 trials) and multiple-trauma-related PTSD ( g = 1.11; 95% CI 0.74–1.47; k = 12). Psychotherapies were also more effective than active control conditions in reducing multiple-trauma-related PTSDparison with active control conditions regarding single-event PTSD was not possible owing to scarcity ( k = 1) of available trials. Efficacy did not differ with trauma exposure frequency irrespective of its operationalisation and subgroup analyses (e.g. trauma-focused cognitive–behavioural therapy only).
The current evidence base suggests that psychological interventions for paediatric PTSD can effectively treat PTSD in populations reporting single and multiple traumas. Future trials for PTSD following single-event trauma need to involve active control conditions.
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This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence ( which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common disorder in children and adolescents. Reference Alisic, Zalta, van Wesel, Larsen, Hafstad and Hassanpour 1 Meta-analytic reviews of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) have concluded that psychological interventions for PTSD produce large and medium effect sizes compared with waiting-list and active control conditions respectively. Continue reading “Of the 57 eligible RCTs ( n = 4295), 51 RCTs were included in quantitative analyses” »
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