Journal article
A guided single session intervention to reduce intrusive memories of work-related trauma: a randomised controlled trial with healthcare workers in the COVID-19 pandemic
- Abstract:
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Background
Intrusive memories of psychologically traumatic events bring distress both sub-clinically and clinically. This parallel-group, two-arm randomised controlled trial evaluated the effect of a brief behavioural intervention on reducing intrusive memories in frontline healthcare workers exposed to traumatic events during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods
Participants with at least two intrusive memories of work-related trauma in the week before recruitment were randomised 1:1 to an imagery-competing task intervention (n = 73) or attention-based control task (n = 71). The number of intrusive memories was assessed at baseline and 5 weeks after the guided session (primary endpoint).
Results
The intervention significantly reduced intrusive memory frequency compared with control [intervention Mdn = 1.0 (IQR = 0-3), control Mdn = 5.0 (IQR = 1-17); p < 0.0001, IRR = 0.30; 95% CI = 0.17-0.53] and led to fewer post-traumatic stress-related symptoms at 1, 3 and 6 month follow-ups (secondary endpoints). Participants and statisticians were blinded to allocation. Adverse events data were acquired throughout the trial, demonstrating safety. There was high adherence and low attrition.
Conclusions
This brief, single-symptom, repeatable digital intervention for subclinical-to-clinical samples after trauma allows scalability, taking a preventing-to-treating approach after trauma.
Trial registration
2020-07-06, ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04460014.
- Publication status:
- Published
- Peer review status:
- Peer reviewed
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- Files:
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(Preview, Supplementary materials, pdf, 4.7MB, Terms of use)
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(Preview, Version of record, pdf, 2.1MB, Terms of use)
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1186/s12916-024-03569-8
Authors
+ AFA Insurance (Sweden)
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- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/02e1fjy29
- Grant:
- 200342
+ Swedish Research Council
More from this funder
- Funder identifier:
- https://ror.org/03zttf063
- Grant:
- 2020–00873
- Publisher:
- BioMed Central
- Journal:
- BMC Medicine More from this journal
- Volume:
- 22
- Issue:
- 1
- Article number:
- 403
- Place of publication:
- England
- Publication date:
- 2024-09-19
- Acceptance date:
- 2024-08-19
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1741-7015
- Pmid:
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39300443
- Language:
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English
- Keywords:
- Pubs id:
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2091066
- Local pid:
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pubs:2091066
- Deposit date:
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2025-04-15
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright holder:
- Kanstrup et al.
- Copyright date:
- 2024
- Rights statement:
- © The Author(s) 2024. Open Access. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.
- Licence:
- CC Attribution (CC BY)
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