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Evidence summaries

Treatment of Sexually Abused Children

Cognitive-behavioural appproaches and some forms of treatment may be beneficial in sexually abused children. Level of evidence: "C"

A Cochrane review 2 (abstract , review [Abstract]) included 10 studies with a total of 847 subjects. Data suggest that cognitive-behavioural approaches may have a positive impact on the sequelae of child sexual abuse, but most results were statistically non-significant.

A systematic review 1 including 29 studies was abstracted in DARE. There were 17 studies with pre-post design, 5 quasi-experimental and 7 experimental designs. The interventions included sex education, music therapy, family therapy, group therapy, and cognitive-behavioural treatment.

All but one of the pre-post test studies found significant improvement on at least one of the outcome measures (parent observation measures, child self-report measures, teacher/therapist ratings) over time periods ranging from 9 weeks to 12 months. Three of the five quasi-experimental studies failed to find any advantage of treatment. Three experimental studies comparing treatment with no treatment found significant effects of treatment.

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Primary/Secondary Keywords