background Young people often experience one or more traumatic events during their life. About 16% develops a post-traumatic stress disorder (ptsd). Whereas trauma treatments are effective, untreated ptsd has serious consequences for the psychosocial development. Adequate screening, correct diagnosis and treatment are very important.
aim To investigate current screening techniques and diagnostic tools and to study the effects of treatment on traumatised children en adolescents.
method In this article we discuss the results of several trauma studies that formed part of two recent successfully completed PhD programmes.
results The Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (cries-13) is a validated trauma screening tool. The Clinician-Administered ptsd Scale, Child and Adolescent Version (caps-ca) is a validated clinical trauma interview. Trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (tf-cbt) and eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (emdr) are the treatments of choice for children and adolescents with ptsd.
conclusion The cries-13 is suitable for use in general care, whereas the caps-ca is more suitable for specialist care. tf-cbt and emdr are the treatment of choice for children and adolescents with ptsd.