Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Young People after L’Aquila Earthquake

OBJECTIVE: Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) emerges as the best validated therapeutic approach for children and adolescents who experienced trauma-related symptoms, particularly associated with anxiety or mood disorders. The aim of this study was to evaluate the CBT efficacy among young people exposed to L’Aquila earthquake, in 2009. METHODS: one year after the disaster, 39 young subjects as a case group (CBT treated) and 24 as a comparison group (no CBT treated) were evaluated with the Impact of Event Scale Revised (IES-R), the General Health Questionnaire-12 items (GHQ-12) and the Brief Cope. CBT was conducted in 12 sessions (once per week for 3 months). After CBT intervention, both groups were evaluated again with the same psychometric instruments. RESULTS: our results show a significantly decrease in post traumatic symptoms and psychological distress severity in CBT group. It was attributable to an improvement in each of three PTSD dimensions (intrusion, avoidance, and arousal) and in the total score of IES-R (p< 0.04). Among CBT treated group, subjects that adopted “planning/problem solving” coping strategies (p < .02) and “religiosity” (p < .045) show higher improvement in psychological distress. CONCLUSIONS: our findings show the efficacy of CBT and the influence of individual coping strategies in the improvement of posttraumatic stress symptoms and psychological distress among young people seeking help from an outpatients service for young people with psychiatric problems (the SMILE) after the catastrophic disaster in L’Aquila.