The Effectiveness of Prolonged Exposure Therapy on Resilience and the Clinical Symptoms in Sexually Abused Girls with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Introductoin:

 Post-traumatic stress disorder is a severe psychological disorder, which arises due to undergoing a stressful and traumatic event. The present study aimed at identifying the effectiveness of Prolonged Exposure therapy in resilience and reducing the clinical symptoms in sexually abused girls with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The research design was a single subject of A-B type with a follow-up period. The statistical population of the study included all 12 to 18-year-old girls with post-traumatic stress disorder due to sexual harassment in Izeh city who were referred to the Social Emergency Center in 2020. Two of them were selected through purposive sampling. Three baseline sessions were considered for each subject. Intervention sessions were performed individually based on a prolonged exposure therapy program in 10 sessions of 90 minutes (2 days a week).Evaluations were performed by the PTSD Symptom Scale (Foa et al., 2018) and resilience questionnaire (Connor and Davidson, 2003) in three stages baseline, intervention sessions, and one month following the treatment. Data analysis was done using visual analysis of graphs, calculation of recovery percentage, and reliable percentage index.

Findings proved that with the beginning of the intervention, both subjects showed a decreasing and improving process in the scores of post-traumatic stress disorder syndrome, and an increasing and improving process in the scores of Connor and Davidson resilience scales. Subjects preserved these results for up to one month following the treatment.

Based on the findings, it is recommended that therapists in the field of children and adolescents use prolonged exposure therapy to increase resiliency and improve stress-made symptoms to achieve more effectiveness. These findings provide important implications for educating and promoting children's mental health.