Everyday Memory in Adolescents with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder before and after Treatment: Effectiveness of Cognitive Behavior Therapy

Cognitive problems¡ especially memory impairments are among the main features of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Therefore¡ the aim of this study was to investigate the impact of Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) on everyday memory in adolescents with PTSD.
A total of 12 quake-stricken adolescents with PTSD were selected based on their scores in the Impact of Event Scale- Revised (IES-R) and Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) and divided into the experimental and control group randomly. The experimental group participated in 10-session CBT¡ while there was no intervention into the control group. In order to measure everyday memory¡ Rivermead Behavioral Memory Test- Third Edition (RBMT-3) was used and the participants completed it in pre-test¡ post-test¡ & follow-up. Finally¡ the data were analyzed using mixed ANOVA.
The results indicated that CBT has significant effect on the improvement of the general memory index¡ the verbal memory index¡ and the prospective memory index¡ whereas there was no significant impact on the improvement of other essential indexes of everyday memory.
The current results can provide promising evidence regarding the positive impact of CBT on the cognitive rehabilitation of the patients with PTSD.