Efficacy of Cognitive Restructuring and Imagery Modification to Reduce the Feeling of Being Contaminated After Childhood Sexual Abuse
Condition: Sexual Abuse; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
MeSH terms: Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Study type: Interventional

Summary: 
      The purpose of this study is to determine whether a short term programme with internet
      research on the frequency of skin exchange and guided imagery modification is effective in
      the treatment of the feeling of being contaminated in female victims of childhood sexual
      abuse (CSA).
    

Detailed description: 
      In the first session the women who suffer from a feeling of being contaminated after
      childhood sexual abuse are interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV
      (SCID) to ensure the clinical diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder and exclude women
      who meet the exclusion criteria. They get questionnaires and protocol sheets to fill out
      until the intervention session after a week. Afterwards the women are randomly assigned to an
      intervention group or a waitlist control group. During the intervention session the women in
      the intervention group research via internet how many times their skin cells in different
      regions of their body have exchanged since the sexual abuse to get the information that their
      skin has changed hundreds and hundreds of times and has nothing in common with their skin in
      childhood or adolescence. This first part of the intervention is based on a component of the
      DBT-PTSD. Afterwards the therapist guides an imagery modification. The women imagine the
      feeling of being contaminated and then to peel off their former contaminated skin and the
      maturing of hundreds of new clean skin cells to process the rational information of the
      internet research emotionally. At the end of the intervention session patients get a tape
      with the guided imagery instruction and commit to listen to the tape daily to exercise the
      guided imagery modification until the third session after a week. In the last session the
      homework is discussed and information on posttraumatic stress disorder and psychotherapeutic
      treatments of posttraumatic stress disorder is offered.Women in the waitlist control group
      get the same treatment as the women in the intervention group after a period of five weeks.
    

Intervention name(s): Imagery Modification; Waitlist control group
Intervention type(s): Behavioral; Behavioral
Intervention description(s): Research via internet concerning the frequency of skin exchange and disputation of the collected information; in the guided imagery modification the therapist instructs the patient to imagine the feeling of being contaminated and the process of peeling off their former contaminated skin and the maturing of hundreds of new clean skin cells; Patients in the wait list control group are treated after a waiting period of five weeks
Other intervention name(s): Cognitive Restructuring and Imagery Modification; CRIM
Allocation: Randomized
Intervention model: Parallel Assignment
Masking: Single (Participant)
Primary purpose: Treatment
Keywords: childhood sexual abuse; CSA; posttraumatic stress disorder; PTSD, feeling of being polluted; mental pollution, mental contamination; feeling of being contaminated; sexual assault; disgust, shame