The efficacy of psychological interventions for child and adolescent PTSD: a network meta-analysis
Pediatric post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and debilitating mental disorder and its effective treatment constitutes a health priority. Numerous randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have examined the efficacy of psychological interventions for pediatric PTSD. Yet, a comprehensive network meta-analysis (NMA) is lacking. The present work addresses this gap. A total of 67 RCTs met the inclusion criteria comprising 5,297 children and adolescents with full or sub-threshold PTSD. Five families of intervention were evaluated: trauma-focused cognitive behavior therapy (TF-CBT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), other trauma-focused interventions, non-trauma-focused (non-TF) interventions, and multi-disciplinary treatments (MDTs). Most RCTs (73%) examined TF-CBT followed by EMDR. Other trauma-focused interventions had too few trials for analysis. At treatment endpoint, TF-CBT, EMDR, MDTs, and non-TF interventions were all effective in treating pediatric PTSD w