Psychotherapy in the treatment of chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a violence research and treatment service

• Grant number: 15/06303-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Effective date (Start): July 01, 2015
• Effective date (End): June 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Psychiatry
• Principal Investigator: Marcelo Feijó de Mello
• Grantee: Aline Villalobo Correia
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 14/12559-5 - Posttraumatic stress disorder and neuroprogression: new approaches to understand the effects of violence on mental functioning, AP.TEM

Abstract

The post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is prevalent in our surroundings and is characterized by symptoms leading to important professional and social losses. There are various possible treatments including medicaments and psychotherapy. This work intends to evaluate the clinical results of psychotherapy in the treatment of patients who have been exposed to violent events, developed post traumatic stress disorder and received psychotherapy in a violence research and treatment service (Programa de Atendimento e Pesquisa em Violência -PROVE) in São Paulo's Federal University. The patients participating in this study seek the service freely or are sent by other health services. To be included they must be 19 to 60 years old, male or female, and must have been diagnosed with PTSD. They agree to participate in a research as soon as they enter the service. Doctors and psychologists are responsible for the psychotherapy sessions, which include psychodynamic therapy, interpersonal therapy and psychological counseling. The sessions are mostly individual, during 50-60 minutes. The patients are evaluated in their first entry and again after six months with different scales: mini international neuropsychiatric interview (MINI), Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale-CAPS, The World Health Organization Quality of Life-WHOQOL, Beck Depression Inventory -BDI, Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and a Social demographic Inventory. The gathered data are registered in the PROVE's data-base for further analysis. Therefore, this study is a longitudinal study which will analyses the impact of psychotherapy in the treatment of patients with PTSD, who are between the ages of 10 and 60 years old, male or female, and have experienced violent events. To groups of patients will be followed regarding their clinical development with the use of the mentioned scales: patients who received medication only and patients who received medication and psychotherapy. (AU)