Reduction of trauma symptoms following group therapy.

OBJECTIVE We examined the effect of a group programme for the treatment of adults suffering the sequelae of childhood abuse and/or neglect. Symptom reduction was the indicator of whether this group programme was an effective treatment modality. METHOD This was an experimental field study using a prepost design and General Linear Model (GLM) analyses. The group programme was conducted for adult survivors of child abuse and neglect and took place at Specialty Clinics, Central Coast Mental Health Services. There were 83 participants, comprising 64 women and 19 men; 56 were in the experimental group, and 17 in the control (waitlist) group. The Trauma Symptom Inventory (TSI) was administered to both experimental and control groups prior to receiving treatment and again three months later. RESULTS General Linear Model analyses indicated there was a reduction of trauma symptoms for the experimental group on seven of the 10 scales of the TSI and on the three composite scales; no similar reduction was found for the control group. CONCLUSIONS The study indicates that this group programme may have been an effective treatment modality for abuse survivors. The level of symptomatology was reduced for those in the group programme compared with the control group for whom there were no changes.