Cognitive Processing Therapy in African Victims of Sexual Violence

In Congolese villages, female victims of sexual violence showed significant benefit from an adaptation of this evidence-based psychotherapy.

Nearly 40% of women in the politically unstable Democratic Republic of Congo have experienced sexual violence. In this cluster randomized study, researchers adapted cognitive processing therapy (CPT) so that it could be delivered to an illiterate population by paraprofessionals supervised by both local and U.S. experts.

Fifteen villages (N=405) were randomized to either 12 sessions of CPT (1 individual and 11 group sessions) or individual support. On standardized measures of depression and anxiety, 70% of therapy subjects and 83% of support subjects had clinically significant symptoms; 60% and 83% had clinically significant symptoms on a standardized measure of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants also had some impairment in a…

Reviewing Author

Peter Roy-Byrne, MD

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Peter Roy-Byrne, MD

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Cognitive Processing Therapy in African Victims of Sexual Violence

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Reviewing Author