Early psychological intervention following recent trauma: A systematic review and meta-analysis.

The short version

This systematic review and meta-analysis explored which early psychological treatments, started within three months of a traumatic event, reduce post-traumatic stress symptoms. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) involves intrusive memories, avoidance and heightened alertness that persist after trauma, and acute stress disorder (ASD) is a similar early reaction in the first month. The authors updated an earlier 2009 review, pooled 61 randomized controlled trials, and prepared it as part of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies treatment guidelines. Trials were split into three groups: help offered to everyone exposed to a trauma, help for people already showing symptoms, and help for people diagnosed with ASD or PTSD. Included trials tested a wide range of approaches, including trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT-T, which uses written, imagined or real-life exposure to the trauma), cognitive therapy without exposure, brief EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, a therapy in which a person recalls a trauma while following guided eye movements), cognitive processing therapy, internet-based self-help and stepped collaborative care. Most participants were adults recruited after accidents, assaults, injury or intensive care. Symptom severity was compared using standardized mean differences (SMD, where negative favors treatment), and the authors rated evidence quality with GRADE. For people not screened for symptoms, no intervention was clinically better than usual care. For people with symptoms, CBT-T outperformed waitlist (SMD -0.63) and supportive counselling (SMD -0.61) after treatment, and the gap was larger in diagnosed ASD or PTSD (SMD -0.89 and -0.75). Cognitive therapy versus waitlist reached SMD -0.68, and brief EMDR reached SMD -2.50, though that result came from four small trials with only 84 participants and very low quality evidence. CBT-T and cognitive therapy performed similarly (SMD -0.19). Benefits were less consistent at 7 to 12 months, and cognitive processing therapy showed no effect in two trials. The authors judged the CBT-T, cognitive therapy and EMDR findings clinically important, whereas significant effects for collaborative care, brief dyadic therapy and a self-guided internet program in unscreened individuals were not judged clinically important. Most ratings were low or very low quality, and few trials reported adverse events. The authors suggest that CBT-T, cognitive therapy and brief EMDR are supported for symptomatic people and that routine intervention for everyone exposed is not supported. They note limits: diverse studies, many small trials, high attrition, inconsistent follow-up and thin safety data. They also caution that the large EMDR effect rests on very few participants, that pooled estimates are uncertain because most GRADE ratings were low or very low, and that non-publication of negative results cannot be excluded.

Key findings

• This review pooled 61 randomized trials of talking therapies started within three months of a traumatic event, sorted by whether participants had no screening, some symptoms, or a diagnosis of acute stress disorder or PTSD.
• For people who were offered help regardless of symptoms, no treatment was clinically better than usual care.
• For people who already had symptoms, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (talk therapy centered on the traumatic memory), cognitive therapy without exposure and brief EMDR (a therapy using guided eye movements while recalling the trauma) reduced symptoms clinically meaningfully, with the biggest gains in those diagnosed with acute stress disorder or PTSD.
• The large effect for brief EMDR came from just four small trials with 84 people and was rated very low quality, and most other ratings were low, so the authors regard the estimates as uncertain.

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