Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Postdisaster Dist

Authors: Jessica L Hamblen Fran H Norris Siobhan Pietruszkiewicz Laura E Gibson April Naturale Claudine Louis

Publish Date: 2009/04/14

Volume: 36, Issue: 3, Pages: 206-214

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Abstract

Many disaster survivors suffer from postdisaster distress regardless of whether or not they meet criteria for specific psychiatric diagnoses Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Postdisaster Distress CBTPD a tensession manualized intervention was developed to address a range of cognitive emotional and behavioral reactions to disaster Trained communitybased therapists provided CBTPD to adult survivors of Hurricane Katrina as part of InCourage a program sponsored by the Baton Rouge Area Foundation Participants n = 88 who were assessed at referral pretreatment intermediate treatment and posttreatment showed significant and large improvements The overall prepost effect size was 14 in intentiontotreat analyses Improvements were comparable for persons with more severe distress and persons with moderate distress at referral Benefits were maintained at followup for the 66 adults who have been assessedThis evaluation was supported by a contract between the Baton Rouge Area Foundation BRAF and the VA Collaborative Medical Research Corporation Jessica Hamblen Principal Investigator Twanda Lewis and Molly Phillips from BRAF Norma Rutledge from the Baton Rouge Crisis Intervention Center Linda Lee Cecile Guin and Remy Fin from Louisiana State University and Stanley Rosenberg Kim Mueser and Maha Zayed from Dartmouth College made significant contributions to the development design implementation or evaluation of InCourage We also thank Elisa Bolton for providing case consultation Yinong YoungXu for his help in conducting the intentiontotreat analysis and Paula Schnurr for her comments on a previous draft of this manuscript A special thanks to the clinicians who delivered the intervention

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