A spiritual-hypnosis assisted treatment of children with PTSD after the 2002 Bali terrorist attack.

Full Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of a spiritual-hypnosis assisted therapy (SHAT) for treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children. All children, age 6-12 years (N=226; 52.7% females), who experienced the terrorist bomb blasts in Bali in 2002, and subsequently were diagnosed with PTSD were studied, through a longitudinal, quasi-experimental (pre-post test), single-blind, randomized control design. Of them, 48 received group SHAT (treatment group), and 178 did not receive any therapy (control group). Statistically significant results showed that SHAT produced a 77.1% improvement rate, at a two-year follow up, compared to 24% in the control group, while at the same time, the mean PTSD symptom score differences were significantly lower in the former group. We conclude that the method of spiritual-hypnosis is highly effective, economic, and easily implemented, and has a potential for therapy of PTSD in other cultures or other catastrophic life-threatening events.

Author information

Author/s: Lesmana, C B J (CB); Suryani, L K (LK); Jensen, G D (GD); Tiliopoulos, Niko (N);

Affiliation: University of Sydney, School of Psychology Brennan MacCallum Building (A18), Room 448 Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: The American journal of clinical hypnosis (Am J Clin Hypn), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2009-Jul; vol 52 (issue 1) : pp 23-34

Dates: Created 2009/08/14; Completed 2009/09/28;

PMID: 19678557, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 9/28/2009, IMS Date: )

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