A randomised controlled trial of psychological debriefing for victims of road traffic accidents

Abstract

The subjects were victims of road accidents admitted consecutively to the John Radcliffe Hospital. We excluded those who could not remember the accident and those with no psychological symptoms, who are at low risk of later problems. Others were excluded because they had been discharged or were not available when the researcher came to visit them. Eight people refused to participate. Those who agreed were allocated randomly to intervention or control group using a random number table. All subjects were screened initially using a semistructured interview based on previous research and two standard self report questionnaires, the impact of events scale for specific post-traumatic symptoms and the brief symptom inventory, which generates a global emotional distress score.