Victims of an armed robbery are at great risk of psychological distress. This research is a prospective randomized controlled clinical trial of an adapted form of Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD-A) with victims of an armed robbery. The specific goals are to examine whether the CISD-A is superior to the control group in both preventing the development of a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and attenuating the frequency and severity of posttraumatic stress symptoms. Following pretest, 75 participants were randomly assigned to individual debriefing or to a control group. Results revealed no differences between the CISD-A and the control group in preventing PTSD or attenuating posttraumatic symptoms 1 and 3 months later. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 6:122–129 (2006)]

Contact author: Andre´Marchand, Department of Psychology, Universite´du Que´bec a ` Montre´al, C.P. 8888, Succ. Centre-ville, Montre´al, Que´bec, Canada H3C 3P8. E-mail: marchand.andre@uqam.ca.

doi:10.1093/brief-treatment/mhj007 Advance Access publication March 24, 2006