Treating children for traumatic stress appears to be more effective than routine care or no treatment, according to results of a new study.

“Despite the expenditure of large sums of public monies to ameliorate the consequences of childhood trauma, little is known about the efficacy of treatment for traumatized children and their families,” say Drs. Claude M. Chemtob and Tisha L. Taylor of Mount Sinai School of Medicine, in New York.

They searched for studies dealing with child and adolescent trauma treatment, to examine the efficacy of such therapy. Of 102 studies identified, only eight met the researchers’ standards for inclusion in their analysis.

Five studies addressed the treatment of clinically diagnosed post-traumatic stress disorder and three measured trauma symptoms as targets for treatment.

Overall, the results of their review suggest “cautious optimism,” the team reports in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

Both drug therapy and psychotherapy improved trauma symptoms in children and adolescents. Any treatment for traumatic stress resulted in greater improvement than no treatment or routine care.

“There is considerable need to establish a programmatic approach to developing evidence-based child trauma treatment,” Chemtob and Taylor write.

However, there are difficulties in doing so. As they point out, “Barriers to conducting child trauma stress treatment research include sensitivity to the rights of victims, and child service models that perceive research as intruding on vulnerable children at crucially sensitive points in their development.”

SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, August 2004.