RCT of post-conflict trauma interventions in the Central African Republic

TL;DR

This study tested two mental health interventions in the Central African Republic to reduce symptoms of depression, anxiety, and trauma in a post-conflict setting.

Contribution

The study demonstrates two effective, low-resource mental health interventions with equivalent outcomes in a post-conflict region.

Findings

The trauma reduction intervention significantly reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety, and trauma compared to a waitlist control.

An active control group focused on peace and value education had equivalent outcomes to the trauma-reduction intervention.

Both interventions maintained significant effects at a 3-month follow-up, though with reduced impact.

Abstract

This study evaluates mental health treatment in a post-conflict setting with scant mental health resources. The study reports on a randomized crossover control group design with one intervention and two control groups implemented in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The intervention’s impact on symptoms of depression, anxiety and trauma was analyzed among a sample of 298 participants located in the capital city, Bangui. Participants were screened for elevated levels of anxiety and depression and randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, intervention and active control. Data included an initial interview, measurement following the two intervention workshops and a 3-month post-intervention follow-up.

The trauma reduction intervention significantly reduced symptoms of depression, anxiety and trauma compared to the waitlist control. The active control group focused on peace and value education and produced equivalent outcomes to the trauma-reduction intervention group. Further, at 3 months follow-up, the impact of both interventions remained significant, although lower. The two interventions did not differ from one another.

The study demonstrates two practical approaches for addressing anxiety, depression and trauma symptoms in post-conflict, low-resource settings. The similar outcome of the two interventions may suggest that they share common therapeutic elements.

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