Wolfgang Wöller

Effects of trauma-focused psychotherapy upon war refugees.

The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of a trauma-focused psychotherapy upon war refugees from Bosnia. Seventy refugees who met the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and somatoform disorders were included. The first 35 refugees were offered psychotherapy and the following 35 refugees received usual care. Outcome variables were changes in self-reported PTSD symptoms, psychological symptoms, and health status. At 12-month follow-up, participants in the intervention group reported significantly lower scores on the PTSD scale and the measure of psychological symptoms than the comparison group participants. Our results suggest that psychotherapy reduces symptoms of PTSD and somatoform disorders among war refugees even in the presence of insecure residence status.

Cortisone Image and Emotional Support by Key Figures in Patients with Bronchial Asthma

In a subgroup of patients with bronchial asthma, irrational fears of steroid medication can be observed beyond justified worries about side-effects. A cortisone image which involves overemphasizing the threatening aspects of cortisone often underlies non-compliant illness behaviour. In the present study, cortisone image and the relationship with a key figure was investigated in 62 patients with bronchial asthma, all of whom had participated in a structured asthma treatment and teaching programme (ATTP). The data show that (1) perceiving cortisone as threatening predicts poor adherence to ATTP guidelines how to manage severe attacks, and (2) patients having a supportive relationship with their key figure are less likely to experience threatening aspects of cortisone.

Psychodynamic psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood abuse—Principles for a treatment manual

In this article, the authors present a psychodynamically oriented psychotherapy approach for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) related to childhood abuse. This neurobiologically informed, phase-oriented treatment approach, which has been developed in Germany during the past 20 years, takes into account the broad comorbidity and the large degree of ego-function impairment typically found in these patients. Based on a psychodynamic relationship orientation, this treatment integrates a variety of trauma-specific imaginative and resource-oriented techniques. The approach places major emphasis on the prevention of vicarious traumatization. The authors are presently planning to test the approach in a randomized controlled trial aimed at strengthening the evidence base for psychodynamic psychotherapy in PTSD.

Treating post-traumatic stress disorder by resource activation in Cambodia.

There is a need for effective, low‐threshold psychotherapeutic treatments in post‐conflict settings1. However, systematic outcome research on site is still extremely rare. To address this problem we integrated rigorous research procedures into a humanitarian program, the so called Mekong Project, and conducted a randomized controlled trial for the treatment of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Cambodia. In short, the Mekong Project aims at establishing independent psychotherapeutic services in several Southeast Asian countries via the systematic training of local health professionals and offering free of charge psychological help to traumatized civilians. Cambodia is one of the least developed countries in Asia, facing many challenges (e.g., poor standards of health and education, rural exodus, and political instability). Mental health morbidity in Cambodia is high. It has been found that 53.4% of the Cambodian population suffer from a mental disorder, with anxiety and PTSD being the most frequent (40.0% and 28.4% respectively)2. Thus, although some stability has returned to the country during the past decades, there are urgent mental health care needs, including the need for individualized psychiatric services. Our aim was to test the efficacy of a non‐confrontational psychotherapeutic treatment for PTSD. The therapy includes two main treatment principles described in treatment manuals: resource‐oriented trauma therapy and resource installation with eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) (short: ROTATE). ROTATE aims at strengthening resilience and coping capacities by activating positive personal resources, and largely draws on psychodynamic principles of the therapeutic relationship. It includes a variety of imaginative resource‐activating methods3, 4 as well as resource development and installation, an EMDR technique aiming at systematically developing and anchoring resources using alternating bilateral stimulation5. ROTATE has several advantages: a) it can be safely applied even to complex trauma conditions, with no major side effects being observed so far; b) instead of solely focusing on PTSD symptoms, it also considers the mental comorbidities typically found in these clients, notably depression and anxiety; c) it is especially suitable for clients from non‐Western countries, as traditional healing resources like mindfulness strategies can be integrated in an overall framework of resource activation; d) its basic elements can easily be taught, even to paraprofessionals. Our trial was carried out in cooperation with the Royal University of Phnom Penh and was located in Phnom Penh City and the nearby Kandal Province. Help‐seeking outpatients screening positively for PTSD (PTSD Check List ≥ 446) were eligible for inclusion. We allowed for comorbid mental health disorders except for psychosis, organic brain disorder, cognitive impairment, dementia, acute suicidality, and acute need for treatment. Overall, 800 patients were screened for eligibility, of whom 86 (mean age 27 years, 61% female) fulfilled the selection criteria and were randomly assigned to either 5 weekly sessions of ROTATE (N=53) or a 5‐week waiting list control group (N=33). Symptoms were measured before and after the intervention (or waiting period). Assessments were performed via personal interview by an investigator blind to treatment allocation. All patients in the control group were offered treatment after the end of the waiting period. The primary outcome was PTSD symptom change on the Indochinese version of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ)7. The PTSD scale of the HTQ includes 16 items reflecting the DSM‐IV criteria for PTSD. Secondary outcomes included depression, anxiety and social functioning. All applied instruments have been validated for the Cambodian population7. The therapy was provided by six Cambodian psychologists who had completed a 3‐year course in trauma therapy as part of the Mekong Project. Based on previous findings of psychological therapies for PTSD8, we expected ROTATE to be superior to waiting list with a between group effect size of at least d=0.65 on the primary outcome. To detect this difference with a power of 0.80 at α=0.05, 2‐sided test, 2 × 40 patients were required. Unfortunately, the concept of randomization, especially being randomized to a waiting list, was very difficult for some clients. As a consequence, randomization failed in 38 patients, leading to an unbalanced allocation ratio (1.6:1), with an overrepresentation of patients randomized to treatment. The trial stopped when the necessary sample size to achieve a power of 0.80 was reached. Data were analyzed by general linear regression models, controlling for baseline symptom severity. The drop‐out rate during the intervention was very low (N=2, one in each group), thus only completer data were analyzed (N=84). Most frequent types of trauma were traffic accidents (24%), domestic violence (23%) and sexual abuse (16%). Patients receiving ROTATE showed significant reductions in PTSD symptoms compared to the waiting list (baseline adjusted means post‐treatment: 1.39, 95% CI: 1.23‐1.54 for ROTATE, and 2.86, 95% CI: 2.66‐3.06 for waiting list, p<0.00001). The between‐group effect size was large (d=2.59). The within‐group effect size was also large for ROTATE (d=4.43), while it was moderate in the control group (d=0.52). No harms were reported. We conclude that a treatment focusing on stabilization rather than confrontation, by establishing a secure patient‐therapist relationship, applying stabilization techniques, and putting an emphasis on a patients own resources, significantly reduced symptoms of PTSD in comparison to a waiting list. The strengths of our study are the following: a) it was conducted on site by local psychologists, which meant that communication between therapists and patients was natural and no interpreters were needed; b) therapists and patients had similar cultural backgrounds, so that culture specific interpretations of symptoms could be taken into account, a factor that has been identified as vital in the therapeutic work with Cambodian patients9; c) local psychologists were trained in ROTATE, which is expected to facilitate patient access to a psychological treatment in a country struggling with insufficient mental health care. Conducting a randomized controlled trial in a developing country is challenging. Nevertheless, we were able to show that the implementation of such a trial was possible and that this specific form of trauma therapy was well accepted by therapists and patients. Our results are preliminary but promising. Further research is required to corroborate the findings. Christiane Steinert1, Peter J. Bumke2, Rosa L. Hollekamp1, Astrid Larisch1, Falk Leichsenring1, Helga Matthes3, Sek Sisokhom4, Ute Sodemann2, Markus Stingl1, Ret Thearom4, Hana Vojtova5, Wolfgang Woller6, Johannes Kruse1,7 1Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany; 2Trauma Aid Germany, Berlin, Germany; 3Psychotraumatology Institute Europe, Duisburg, Germany; 4Department of Psychology, Royal University of Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia; 5Slovak Institute for Psychotraumatology and EMDR, Trencin, Slovakia, and Center for Neuropsychiatric Research of Traumatic Stress, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic; 6Hospital for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, Rhein‐Klinik, Bad Honnef, Germany; 7Clinic for Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany

Analyse einer Teamsupervision aus der Perspektive der SASB-Methode: Was läßt sich über latente Teamprozesse aussagen?

Die SASB-Methode ist eine Methode der Untersuchung von sozialen Interaktionen, die sich gegenwartig in der empirischen Psychotherapieforschung einer gewissen Beliebtheit erfreut. Dennoch durfte sie nicht so weitgehend bekannt sein, als das wir auf einige einleitende Hinweise zum theoretischen Hintergrund des Konzepts und zum methodischen Vorgehen bei der Auswertung von Texten verzichten konnten.