Preliminary results
Narrative Exposure Therapy in the context of ongoing urban violence
One in three individuals who live in Rio de Janeiro experience a traumatic event within a period of 12 months (Ribeiro et al., 2013). In low income regions this is even higher. Psychological sequelae include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and other mental disorders (Ribeiro et al., 2013, Lewis et al., 2019). Trauma-focused therapy approaches have emerged as the treatment of choice when the dangerous events are over, but symptoms have remained for an extended time period. Ideally, the victim is in a safe context during treatment. However, frequently, survivors cannot escape from environments characterized by ongoing threat and traumatic stress. The aim of this study is to test the effectiveness of Narrative Exposure Therapy in a sample of clients with post-traumatic stress disorder who live under the continuous threat of urban violence in Rio de Janeiro. The study protocol can be retrieved here.
In this preliminary analysis report, we present statistics for the first group of clients treated with Narrative Exposure Therapy versus treatment as usual (N=39; male n=6).
Proportion of clients by treatment group
Worst event reported by client at baseline
All clients reported that they had experienced more than one traumatic event. The different types of most severe traumatic experienced reflect exposure to violence in the community but also in the family.
Posttraumatic stress disorder symptom severity
Our data show that despite the unexpected incidence of the Corona pandemic in addition to the ongoing violence the severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms (assessed by blind raters) appears to decrease stronger in clients who received Narrative Exposure Therapy than in clients who received treatment as usual.
Conclusion
Narrative Exposure Therapy presents as a potential intervention not only in settings with established safety but also when urban violence has consolidated and prevails. Final results will be available mid 2022 after the last follow ups have been conducted.
