Tehran University Medical Journal

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Background: Psychological debriefing has been widely advocated for routine use following major traumatic events. Cognitive Behavioral Interventions, art supportive therapies, and sport and recreational support activities are other interventions for reducing posttraumatic stress disorder. We assessed the effects of theses methods individually and in combination on reduction posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in adolescents who had experienced Bam earthquake.
Methods: In a field trial, we evaluated the efficacy of psychological debriefing, group cognitive-behavioral therapy, art and sport supportive interventions in 200 adolescents with PTSD symptoms who survived of Bam earthquake and compare it with a control group. Patients were randomly assigned to one of intervention programs including: group cognitive-behavioral therapy group CBT plus art and sport interventions art and sport interventions without group CBT and control group.
Results: Thirty one individuals were excluded because of migration. A statistically significant reduction in overall PTSD symptoms as well as in avoidance symptoms was observed after group cognitive-behavioral therapy. There was no significant difference in reduction of overall PTSD and avoidance symptoms between the other groups.
Conclusion: Psychological interventions in form of group cognitive behavioral therapy can reduce the symptoms of PTSD symptoms but we couldn't find the art and sport supportive therapy alone or in combination with group CBT to be useful in this regard.

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Background: Many studies have shown the efficacy of cognitive – behavioral therapy and psychological debriefing in treatment of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and a few evidences are available for using these techniques in large scale disasters. This study aimed to asses the effect of some psychological interventions in reducing PTSD symptoms after Bam earthquake in different age groups.
Methods: In a before-after quasi experimental clinical trial, we compared the efficacy of one session of psychological debriefing and three sessions of group cognitive-behavioral therapy in bam earthquake PTSD symptoms in different age groups. We evaluated PTSD symptoms before and immediately and three months after interventions by CASP scaling system and analyzed data.
Results: one hundred and thirty persons entered in the study and 51 persons excluded during interventions because of migration. Interventions were showed to be effective only in short term period. The means of PTSD symptoms frequency and severity of avoidance symptoms were reduced during three months period of study which were statistically significant P<0.05. Interventions showed no efficacy for recall symptoms in long term and hyper arousal symptoms in short term and long term periods. There was no statistically significant difference among age groups.
Conclusion: Psychosocial supportive interventions may be effective on some of the PTSD symptoms but there is no difference in different age groups.

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Background: Cognitive problems in patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) include poor concentration and impaired memory. Prevalence of PTSD in all aspects of life is 8% in USA. Regarding the importance of memory in functional levels, this study was performed to review memory status in these patients.

Methods: Fifty male war veterans with PTSD and major depression and 50 male non-veterans with depression participated in this study performed at psychiatric outpatient ward in Baqiyatallah hospital during 2008-2009. The patients met the DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. Depression severity, sex, age, educational level, and marital status were matched in both groups. A psychologist completed demographic and Mississippi questionnaires, PTSD checklist (PCL), beck depression Inventory and wechsler memory scale. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS software (version 11.0). A P-value smaller than 0.05 was considered significant.

Results: The mean age of the veterans and non-veterans was 43.9±4.7 and 42±9.4 years, respectively. Memory status did not differ between the two groups (P>0.05). There was no statistically significant correlation between duration and severity of PTSD with memory impairment (P>0.05). A negative correlation was found between personal and general information with re-experiencing in the veterans (P<0.05). Impaired memory was correlated with age greater than 45, educational level lower than high school diploma, severity of depression and longer participation in war.

Conclusion: Although both PTSD and major depression affected memory, but memory status did not differ between patients with PTSD and depression and patients with chronic depression.