Prevention of Intrusive Memories and Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms After Emergency Cesarean Section

Vaud University Hospital Center

Status: Completed

Conditions: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Acute Stress Disorder

Treatments: Behavioral: Brief computerized intervention

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02502513

480/2012

Details and patient eligibility

About

This pilot study aims to investigate the effects of a brief computerized intervention (the computer game "Tetris") on intrusive memories and other posttraumatic stress symptoms following an emergency cesarean section. Patients who have undergone an emergency cesarian section will be randomly allocated to either the brief computerized intervention or usual care within the first 6 hours following the operation. Participants will be followed up at one week and one month. It is predicted that participants given the brief computerized intervention will develop fewer intrusive memories and less severe clinical symptoms than those who are not. This will inform the potential future development of a simple computerized intervention to prevent distressing psychological symptoms after a traumatic event such as an emergency cesarean section.

Enrollment: 56 patients

Sex: Female

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Female, aged 18+ years
• Had emergency caesarean section within the past 6 hours
• Have given birth to a live baby at ≥ 37 weeks gestation

Exclusion criteria

• Do not speak French sufficiently well to participate in assessments
• Have established intellectual disability or psychotic illness
• Baby was transferred to intensive care unit after the birth

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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56 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention

Experimental group

Description:

Brief computerized intervention (computer game "Tetris") plus usual care in the maternity department and completion of intrusive memory diary

Treatment:

Behavioral: Brief computerized intervention

Control

No Intervention group

Description:

Usual care in the maternity department plus completion of intrusive memory diary