“INTERAPY”: THE EFFECTS OF A SHORT PROTOCOLLED TREATMENT OF POSTTRAUMATIC STRESS AND PATHOLOGICAL GRIEF THROUGH THE INTERNET

Abstract

The present study examines the effectiveness of an online standardized treatment of posttraumatic stress and pathological grief administered through the Internet. Twenty students who had experienced traumatic life events and showed the symptoms of posttraumatic stress participated in the study. They received credit course points for inclusion in the research. Treatment consisted of 10 writing sessions (45 minutes each) during a period of 5 weeks. Participants were assessed at pretreatment, posttreatment, and after six weeks (follow-up). The participants improved strongly from pre- to post-treatment on posttraumatic stress and pathological grief symptoms and in psychological functioning. These improvements were sustained during the follow-up period. Moreover, 19 of the 20 participants were clinically recovered after treatment. The changes in posttraumatic stress symptomatology were compared post hoc to changes in control and experimental groups from trials on similarly protocolled but face-to-face treatment of posttraumatic stress.