Effectiveness of a Brief Psychological Intervention (P-CRP) for Complex Trauma and Loss

Zahide Betül Baydar

Status: Completed

Conditions: Stress Disorder - Post-traumatic (Acute); Grief (Traumatic Grief and Existential Grief); Trauma and Stress Related Disorders

Treatments: Behavioral: Psychological-cognitive reprocessing procedure (P-CRP).; Behavioral: Expressive Narrative and Symbolic Drawing (ENSD)

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT07360990

E-53938333-050-50007

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new psychotherapy technique called Psychological Cognitive Reprocessing Procedure (P-CRP) in treating trauma symptoms. The P-CRP intervention was developed and manualized by the principal investigator (Z.B.Baydar). Participants were randomly assigned to either the P-CRP intervention group, an active control group, or a waitlist condition. The study aimed to determine if this new method, which focused on episodic buffer processing, significantly reduced trauma-related psychological distress compared to standard approaches. Data collected during the intervention phase were analyzed to assess the efficacy of the P-CRP technique.

Enrollment: 43 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18 to 65 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Individuals were excluded if they had:

1. An Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) score greater than 7.
2. A history of psychotic disorder or bipolar disorder.
3. Current suicide risk.
4. Substance use disorder.
5. Prior therapeutic contact with the researcher.
6. A target traumatic event that had occurred more than one year earlier.
7. Not meeting clinical DSM-5 criteria for PTSD during the clinician-administered semi-structured interview, regardless of initial self-report scores.
8. Current participation in any other form of psychotherapy or psychiatric intervention.

Individuals were included if they had:

1. Meeting DSM-5 criteria for PTSD symptoms (verified by IES-R scores and clinician-led semi-structured interview).
2. Having experienced a target traumatic event or loss within the past 12 months.
3. Willingness to provide informed consent and participate in all intervention sessions.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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43 participants in 3 patient groups

Psychological-cognitive reprocessing procedure (P-CRP).

Experimental group

Description:

The P-CRP was the experimental group receiving four session the intervention. The Psychological-Cognitive Reprocessing Procedure (P-CRP) is a brief and a neuro-psychological intervention based on the episodic buffer model. This process facilitates the separation of cognitions from automatic processing and pulls traumatic fragments into the episodic buffer through simultaneous neuronal firing. This integration helps resolve the semantic fragmentation caused by trauma, allowing for cognitive reintegration and meaning making.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Psychological-cognitive reprocessing procedure (P-CRP).

Expressive Narrative and Symbolic Drawing (ENSD)

Active Comparator group

Description:

Control participants received four session a narrative-based expressive and symbolic drawing protocol. The intervention delivered to the control group can be characterized as an active, experiential, projective, and sensory-supported approach.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Expressive Narrative and Symbolic Drawing (ENSD)

Waitlist Group

No Intervention group

Description:

Participants in this group did not receive any active psychological intervention during the study period. They completed the pre-test and follow-up assessments at the same time intervals as the intervention groups. Following the completion of the follow-up phase, participants in the wait-list group were offered a psychological intervention protocol based on the study's findings to ensure ethical treatment standards.