Controlled Trial of Mental Health Interventions for Torture Survivors in Kurdistan

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

Status: Completed

Conditions: Depression

Treatments: Behavioral: Behavioral Activation; Behavioral: Cognitive Processing Therapy; Behavioral: nonspecific counseling

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00925262

BoltonP-1

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine the relative effectiveness of three different mental health counseling interventions in the treatment of mental health problems commonly affecting torture and trauma survivors living in Kurdistan, Iraq.

Full description

See above

Enrollment: 530 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• at least 18 years old
• Kurdish
• torture survivor
• currently has significant depression symptomatology.

Exclusion criteria

• danger to self or others
• already receiving treatment from our treatment provider
• not mentally competent to provide informed consent.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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530 participants in 4 patient groups

Cognitive Processing Therapy

Experimental group

Description:

An adaptation of cognitive behavioral therapy, focusing on treatment for persons suffering mental health effects of trauma

Treatment:

Behavioral: Cognitive Processing Therapy

Behavioral Activation

Experimental group

Description:

A form of counseling therapy that emphasizes enhancing pleasurable behaviors and minimizing negative behaviors as a means to reducing depression symptomatology.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Behavioral Activation

non-specific counseling

Experimental group

Description:

a collection of counseling skills suitable for a broad range of mental health and psychosocial problems and not designed for specific disorders. This particular version was developed by a collaborator -Heartland Alliance - for use with torture survivors.

Treatment:

Behavioral: nonspecific counseling

wait control

No Intervention group

Description:

persons in this study arm will not receive active treatment as part of the study but will be monitored during the study and offered treatment after 3-5 months of waiting.