Trauma focused therapy can help children with PTSD
Research at CPFT with the University of East Anglia (UEA) has found that a specialist therapy could offer hope for some of the most vulnerable young people living with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
The researchers investigated the effectiveness of trauma-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for treating children who had been through multiple traumas such as abuse, violence or serious accidents.
While this type of therapy is already known to help with PTSD, the DECRYPT study focused on children who had experienced multiple traumas - a group often considered harder to treat. This large clinical trial was one of the first of its kind to test the approach in real-world settings.
Lead researcher Professor Richard Meiser-Stedman (pictured) at UEA’s Norwich Medical School said: “Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a deeply distressing and disabling psychiatric condition. Recent research has shown that more than seven per cent of young people in the UK will have developed PTSD at some point by the age of 18. For many young people it may persist for years or even decades if untreated. We wanted to find out whether trauma-focused CBT, which concentrates on helping young people make sense of their experiences, could help.”
Trauma-focused therapy is a specialised type of psychotherapy designed to help people process and recover from traumatic experiences. It focuses on addressing the impact of trauma on mental, emotional, and behavioural well-being – to help people develop coping mechanisms and a healthier understanding of their experiences.
A total of 120 young people aged 8-17 years took part in the study, including six from CPFT’s child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) from 2018 to 2020. These children had all been through multiple traumas and were seeking help through mental health services across the UK.
Half received trauma-focused CBT, while the others received the typical treatment offered at mental health clinics. Many of the participants also had other significant mental health issues, such as depression or anxiety.
CPFT’s specialist research team worked with CAMHS staff to support the study.
Clinical Research Practitioner Codie Fahey said: "We enjoyed conducting this study and meeting children and their families during the home visits. It was a privilege to hear their stories and learn from their experiences. We hope that the insights gained from this research will help advance treatments and provide better care for many children living with PTSD in the future."
The results showed that while trauma-focused therapy was not dramatically better than standard treatment immediately after therapy, its benefits became clearer over time. After 11 months, those who received trauma focused therapy showed significantly greater improvements in PTSD symptoms, anxiety, depression, and emotion regulation.
Researchers also noted that very few young people dropped out of the therapy, and there were no serious side effects, even though many participants had complex and severe symptoms.
Professor Meiser-Stedman said: “These findings are really encouraging. They suggest that trauma focused therapy can be an effective and safe treatment for young people who have gone through more than one trauma, especially when they also have other mental health issues. It also worked in real-world clinics, not just controlled research settings - so it’s likely to help in everyday practice. We hope our work will influence how PTSD is treated in young people across the UK and beyond, particularly those who’ve experienced repeated or long-term trauma.”
This research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and coordinated by the Norwich Clinical Trials Unit. The study was led by the University of East Anglia and Norwich Clinical Trials Unit in collaboration with Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust, Hertfordshire Partnership University NHS Foundation Trust, King's College London, South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, North East London NHS Foundation Trust, Cardiff and Vale University Health Board, University College London, University of Bath, Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, and MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cambridge.
‘A pragmatic randomized controlled trial of cognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents exposed to multiple traumatic stressors: the DECRYPT trial’ is published in the journal World Psychiatry online.
