Do Posttraumatic Interventions Help

Victims of serious car accidents were assessed at the time of the event, four months later, and three years later. Half received a form of posttraumatic intervention called critical incident stress debriefing (CISD); half received no treatment. As you can see, almost everyone had recovered within four months, but one group had higher stress symptoms than everyone else, even after three years: the people who were the most emotionally distressed right after the accident and who received CISD. The therapy actually impeded their recovery (Mayou et al., 2000).