title: Testimony Therapy With Ritual: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial.
abstract: Testimony therapy can provide low-cost, brief, simple, and culturally adaptable psychosocial services in low-income countries (Agger, Raghuvanshi, Khan, Polatin, & Laursen, 2009). Nonetheless, there have been no well-controlled studies of testimony therapy. We report the analyses of a randomized controlled trial designed to assess the effectiveness of testimony therapy plus a culturally adapted ceremony in reducing mental health symptoms among Khmer Rouge torture survivors from across Cambodia. Using multilevel modeling, we compared symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and depression between a treatment (n = 45) and a control group (n = 43) at baseline, 3 months, and 6 months. We found that testimony therapy plus ceremony significantly reduced symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (d = 0.49), anxiety (d = 0.44), and depression (d = 0.53).
authors.affiliation: Research Department, The Center for Victims of Torture, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA.
authors.forename: Jennifer J
authors.initials: JJ
authors.lastname: Esala
authors.affiliation: The Transcultural Psychosocial Organization Cambodia, Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
authors.forename: Sopheap
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Taing
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001007:Anxiety / Q000209:etiology; D002160:Cambodia; D000069581:Exposure to Violence / Q000523:psychology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008960:Models, Psychological; D033262:Narration; D010865:Pilot Projects; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology* / Q000628:therapy*; D063189:Symptom Assessment; D014104:Torture / Q000523:psychology