Child sexual abuse is a common experience which has serious mental health consequences, including the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other abuse-related and general psychopathological symptoms. The current project will evaluate the comparative efficacy of Sexual Abuse Specific Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (SAS-CBT) and nondirective supportive therapy (NST) in decreasing these symptoms following recent sexual abuse. Two hundred forty (240) subjects will be randomly assigned to one of these treatments at each of two sites, and will be provided with 12 weeks of individual therapy for children and parents. Treatment will be monitored for compliance with the respective treatment models through intensive supervision, audiotaping of sessions, rating of sessions with use of adherence checklists, and independent blind rating of audiotapes. Treatment outcome will be evaluated through the use of several self-, parent-, and teacher-report standardized instruments, to be administered at pre- and post-treatment and 6- and 12-month follow-up evaluations. In addition to evaluating main treatment effects, the project will assess differential treatment impact by gender and ethnicity. It will also attempt to evaluate the impact of specific components of the treatment process in mediating treatment outcome. Specifically, the project will evaluate the differential effectiveness of the two treatment modalities in improving the subject's abuse-related attributions and perceptions, parenting practices, familial adaptability and cohesiveness, parent support, and parental emotional reaction to the abuse will be evaluated, and the impact of improving these variables on treatment outcome will be assessed.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
Type
Unknown (R10)
Project #
1R10MH055963-01A1
Application #
2034845
Study Section
Violence and Traumatic Stress Review Committee (VTS)
Project Start
1997-08-15
Project End
2002-07-31
Budget Start
1997-08-15
Budget End
1998-07-31
Support Year
1
Fiscal Year
1997
Total Cost
Indirect Cost
Name
Allegheny University of Health Sciences
Department
Psychiatry
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
City
Philadelphia
State
PA
Country
United States
Zip Code
19129
Deblinger, Esther; Mannarino, Anthony P; Cohen, Judith A et al. (2006) A follow-up study of a multisite, randomized, controlled trial for children with sexual abuse-related PTSD symptoms. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 45:1474-84
Cohen, Judith A; Deblinger, Esther; Mannarino, Anthony P et al. (2004) A multisite, randomized controlled trial for children with sexual abuse-related PTSD symptoms. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry 43:393-402
Cohen, Judith A; Berliner, Lucy; Mannarino, Anthony P (2003) Psychosocial and pharmacological interventions for child crime victims. J Trauma Stress 16:175-86
Pine, Daniel S; Cohen, Judith A (2002) Trauma in children and adolescents: risk and treatment of psychiatric sequelae. Biol Psychiatry 51:519-31