�Highly traumatized children surviving in war-torn Kosovo experient significant reductions in posttraumatic stress disorderliness (PTSD) when treated with a comprehensive, non-drug model developed by The Center for Mind-Body Medicine (CMBM), according to a new study published online in the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry. The new study, "Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Post-War Kosovar Adolescents Using Mind-Body Skills Groups: A Randomized Controlled Trial," is the first base randomized controlled trial of any intervention with state of war traumatized children.
The study demonstrates that CMBM's mind-body techniques, including biofeedback, meditation, guided imaging and self-expression (in dustup, drawings, and movement) bring about lasting changes in levels of focus, flashbacks, nightmares and symptoms of withdrawal and numbing in adolescents living in a region of conflict.
Eighty-two Kosovo high school students participated in the study, all of whom met PTSD criteria as measured by the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire. Teachers trained in the CMBM mind-body model offered the 12-session program in small, supportive educational settings.
After participating in the three-month prospicient program, the number of students having symptoms was dramatically rock-bottom from 100% to 18%. The simplification was retained at a three-month followup. The improvement was significantly greater than a mastery group of non-participating students. CMBM's founder and theatre director, and the study's atomic number 82 author, James S. Gordon, MD, describes the approach in his new account book, Unstuck: Your Guide to the Seven Stage Journey Out of Depression.
"This study provides scientific evidence for the efficacy of a example taught to almost 3,000 health and mental health professionals and educators worldwide," aforementioned Dr. Gordon. "CMBM's approach shot is educational and potently effective and can be taught and used by people of all ages on their own. We've used this small chemical group model to give tens of thousands of children and adults practical tools that help them feel better promptly, and we've taught them to use their hunch and imaging to figure out problems. Our approach is proving highly acceptable to populations which do non want to be tending medication, and have no access to a doctor or therapist."
This mind-body model is being secondhand to treat war-traumatized populations in Israel and Gaza as intimately as in post-Katrina southern Louisiana. It is as well widely used with depressed people and those with chronic sickness in the US, and has been incorporated as a stress reduction programme for students in a dozen US medical schools.
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