p26: determination of the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral therapy in reducing symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of road accidents

post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd) is the one of the main disorders arising from disastrous experiences. road accidents are common reasons for mental disorders which are associated with trauma. with regard to the prevalence and effects of ptsd, treatment of these disorders is very important. the aim of the present study is to determine the efficacy of cognitive-behavioral therapy in reducing symptoms of ptsd in road accidents victims. population of this study consists of 50 subjects of road accident victims hospitalized in different wards of 3 hospitals in esfahan city. thirty nine subjects have earned maximum score of the pcl questionnaire and 30 subjects were randomly selected and divided into two groups as the experimental group and control group. the experimental group received eight ninety-minute sessions of cognitive-behavioral therapy and the control group did not receive any therapy program. after the end of therapy sessions, the two groups were tested and the results compared with the primary scores. data were analyzed using spss16 software. results showed that there are significant differences between the control and experimental groups in terms of ptsd mean (p<0.05). based on these findings, we conclude that cognitive behavioral therapy dramatically, leads to reduce symptoms of ptsd in road accidents.