The Effect of Psychodrama on the Reduction of PTSD Symptoms in Primary School Students of Earthquake Stricken Areas of Salas Babajani

Objective: The aim of this study was to determine and identify the effect of psychodrama on reducing the symptoms of tension and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in elementary school students in earthquake-stricken city of Salas Babajani. Materials and Methods: This study was a quasi-experimental one with pre-test and post-test method with control group. The statistical population of the present study was all male elementary school students had post-traumatic stress disorder in Salas Babajani, 40 of whom were selected by purposeful sampling based on the criteria of post-traumatic stress disorder and were divided into two equal experimental groups (n1 = 20, n2 = 20). Research instruments were diagnostic interview of posttraumatic stress disorder according to DSM-5 criteria and posttraumatic stress disorder questionnaire based on DSM-5 (PCL-5). Data were analyzed using one-way covariance and multivariate analysis of covariance (MANCOVA) to test the research hypotheses. Results: The results showed that psychodrama reduced the symptoms of tension and posttraumatic stress with effect size of 0.51 in children with posttraumatic stress disorder (p <0.001). Conclusion: It can be concluded that psychodrama is an effective adjunctive therapy to reduce the symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder and reduce childrenchr('39')s neuropsychological problems, however, this generalization needs further research.