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The effect of trauma-focused therapy on voice-hearing: An experience sampling study
Simone R Burger1,2, Amy Hardy3,4, Inez Verdaasdonk1,2
1Department of Clinical Psychology, VU University and Amsterdam Public Health Research Institute, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Trauma and post-traumatic stress are involved in the aetiology and maintenance of voice-hearing. It has been proposed that trauma-focused therapy (TFT) might affect voice-hearing, but previous studies are limited and remain undecided.
Objectives:
We aimed to investigate the effect of TFT on voice-hearing in people with PTSD and psychosis using experience sampling method (ESM). A secondary aim was to explore how changes in voice-hearing are related to changes in PTSD.
Design:
This is an adjunct longitudinal ESM study of a sub-group of participants (N = 39) from a randomised controlled trial that compared TFT to a waiting-list control group.
Methods:
Voice-hearing participants filled in 10 daily voice-hearing-related questionnaires for six consecutive days at baseline and post-treatment at pseudo-random times during the day. PTSD symptom severity was assessed at baseline and post-treatment. Multilevel linear regression was used to test the effect of TFT on voice-hearing and to analyse the relationship between changes in voice-hearing and changes in PTSD.
Results:
The intention-to-treat analysis showed a significant interaction effect between time and treatment condition (p < .00001) with a small effect size (dppc2 = -0.27), indicating a larger decrease in voice-hearing in the TFT group than in the waiting-list control group. Also, a significant association was observed between changes in PTSD symptoms and changes in voice-hearing (p < .00001).
Conclusions:
Our findings tentatively suggest that, even when voices are not targeted directly, TFT for PTSD can alleviate distressing voices.
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