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Testimony method to ameliorate post-traumatic stress symptoms

Community-based intervention study with Mozambican civil war survivors

Associação Esperança Para Todos, Gorongosa, Mozambique

Wim C. Kleijn, MSc

Centrum ’45, Oegstgeest, and Leiden University Medical Centre, Medical Psychology, Leiden

Bas J. N. Schreuder, PhD

AMC/De Meren, Amsterdam, and UMCSt Radboud, Nijmegen

Janie A. van Dijk, MSc

Centrum ’45, Oegstgeest

Margot Verschuur, MSc

Leiden University, Department of Psychology, Leiden, The Netherlands

Correspondence: Victor Igreja, c/o Wim Kleijn, Centrum ’45, Rijnzichtweg 35, 2342 AX Oegstgeest, The Netherlands. Tel: 00 31 71 5155242; e-mail: vigreja{at}yahoo.com

Declaration of interest None. This study was partly funded by Associaão Esperança Para Todos, Mozambique.

Background The effectiveness of the testimony method has not been established in rural communities with survivors of prolonged civil war.

Aims To examine the effectiveness and feasibility of a testimony method to ameliorate post-traumatic stress symptoms.

Method Participants (n=206) belonged to former war zones in Mozambique. They were divided into a case (n=137) and a non-casegroup (n=69). The case group was randomly divided into an intervention (n=66) and a control group (n=71). Symptoms were measured during baseline assessment, post-intervention and at an 11-month follow-up.

Results Post-intervention measurements demonstrated significant symptom reduction in both the intervention and the control group. No significant differences were found between the intervention and the control group. Follow-up measurements showed sustained lower levels of symptoms in both groups, and some indications of a positive intervention effect in women.

Conclusions A remarkable drop in symptoms could not be linked directly to the intervention. Feasibility of the intervention was good, but controlling the intervention in a small rural community appeared to be a difficult task to accomplish.

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