Psychological debriefing for preventing post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Over approximately the last last fifteen years early psychological interventions such as psychological 'debriefing' have been increasingly used to treat psychological trauma. While these intervention have become popular and their use spread to several settings - efficacy had largely not been tested empirically. In 1997 a systematic review of single session psychological "debriefing" was undertaken and this subsequently became a protocol and Cochrane Review published in 1998 (Issue2). This update forms the first substantive update of the original review.