Mothers Overcoming and Managing Stress

Summary

The study is a randomized trial of two manualized 12-session one-to-one educational and therapeutic interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), to test and compare their efficacy for reducing PTSD symptoms as a means of prevention of intergenerational victimization by or involvement in criminal activities with at-risk mothers. The two therapies are (1) Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET) and (2) Present Centered Therapy (PCT). The study also included a wait-list comparison condition in which participants were offered one of the two therapies following completion of baseline and posttest assessments.

Conditions

• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
• PTSD

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy

Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy (TARGET; Ford \& Russo, 2006) is a manualized gender-specific treatment for PTSD. TARGET teaches a practical 7-step sequence of skills for processing and managing trauma-related reactions to current stressful experiences, summarized by a mnemonic ("FREEDOM"), e.g., Focusing ("F"), Recognizing current triggers. TARGET also involves creative arts activities, i.e., personalized "lifelines" via collage, drawing, poetry, and writing that may include traumatic experiences but emphasize "life story" narrative reconstruction with no exposure therapy.

BEHAVIORAL

Present Centered Therapy (PCT) - psychotherapy

Present Centered Therapy (PCT) is a 12-session supportive therapy adapted a 14-session version co-developed by the first author (McDonagh-Coyle et al., 2005). Psychoeducation is provided about the link between traumatic events, PTSD symptoms, and problems in relationships, and social problem solving skills are taught to address the "traumagenic dynamics" of betrayal, stigma, powerlessness, and sexualization (Finkelhor, 1987). PCT focuses on addressing current problems rather than trauma memory-based exposure therapy, and uses a distinctive mnemonic to organize the skill set. PCT has clients keep a journal of relational stressors and responses as between-session homework.

OTHER

No-treatment "waitlist" group

After a 90 day wait-list period, participants were invited to choose one of the treatment approaches (PCT or TARGET) and engage in 12 sessions of therapy.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• U.S. Department of Justice

  collaborator FED

• UConn Health

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Julian Ford, Ph.D. · UConn Health

• Joan Levine, M.P.H. · UConn Health

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

50 Years

Sex

FEMALE

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2005-01-31

Primary Completion

2007-11-30

Completion

2007-11-30

Countries

• United States

Study Locations