title: Emotional or educational debriefing after psychological trauma. Randomised controlled trial.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Recent studies show that individual single-session psychological debriefing does not prevent and can even aggravate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  We studied the effect of emotional ventilation debriefing and educational debriefing v. no debriefing on symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression.
  
  
  METHODS
  We randomised 236 adult survivors of a recent traumatic event to either emotional ventilation debriefing, educational debriefing or no debriefing (control) and followed up at 2 weeks, 6 weeks and 6 months.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Psychiatric symptoms decreased in all three groups over time, without significant differences between the groups in symptoms of PTSD (P=0.33). Participants in the emotional debriefing group with high baseline hyperarousal score had significantly more PTSD symptoms at 6 weeks than control participants (P=0.005).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study did not provide evidence for the usefulness of individual psychological debriefing in reducing symptoms of PTSD, anxiety and depression after psychological trauma.
authors.affiliation: Academic Medical Centre, Department of Psychiatry, Tafelbergweg 25, 1105 BC, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. e.m.sijbrandij@amc.uva.nl
authors.forename: Marit
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sijbrandij
authors.forename: Miranda
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Olff
authors.forename: Johannes B
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Reitsma
authors.forename: Ingrid V E
authors.initials: IV
authors.lastname: Carlier
authors.forename: Berthold P R
authors.initials: BP
authors.lastname: Gersons
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000328:Adult; D001007:Anxiety / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D003419:Crisis Intervention / Q000379:methods; D003863:Depression / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D004644:Emotions; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010353:Patient Education as Topic / Q000379:methods*; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011614:Psychotherapy, Brief / Q000379:methods*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000523:psychology; D016896:Treatment Outcome