Interventions and treatments for trauma-related disorders across cultures

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Trauma is not limited by national borders. In addition, from a global perspective, exposure to one or more traumatic events is the norm rather than the exception (Kessler, 2017; Schnyder, et al., 2017).

Several evidence-based interventions are available for PTSD or other trauma outcomes (Bisson & Olff, 2021), mostly developed in Western, high income countries (Olff et al., 2025). Importantly, in spite of a lot of overlap and commonalities, traumatic experiences, trauma-related symptoms, as well as treatment approaches differ across geographic regions and cultures.

More research is needed around the world, particularly in other than Western settings, and on if and how to adapt these for optimal efficacy across other cultural contexts (e.g. Bedard-Gilligan, et al., 2022.

The Global Collaboration is currently initiating projects with the aim of generating and disseminating more in-depth knowledge about the feasibility and efficacy of interventions around the world and on potentially needed cultural adaptations.​​​​

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G​​​​​lobal interventions projects

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Intervention projects on cultural adaptations 

 

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References

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• Bedard-Gilligan, M., Kaysen, D., Cordero, R. M., Huh, D., Walker, D., Kaiser-Schauer, E., Robjant, K., Saluskin, K., & Pearson, C. (2022). Adapting narrative exposure therapy with a tribal community: A community-based approach. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 78(11), 2087–2108. https://doi.org/10.1002/jclp.23395

 

• Bisson, J.I. & Olff, M. (2021) Prevention and treatment of PTSD: the current evidence base. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 12, 1, https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2020.1824381

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• Kessler, R. C., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Benjet, C., Bromet, E. J., Cardoso, G., Degenhardt, L., de Girolamo, G., Dinolova, R. V., Ferry, F., Florescu, S., Gureje, O., Haro, J. M., Huang, Y., Karam, E. G., Kawakami, N., Lee, S., Lepine, J.-P., Levinson, D., … Koenen, K. C. (2017). Trauma and PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(sup5), 1353383. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1353383

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• Olff, M., Hein, I., Amstadter, A. B., Armour, C., Skogbrott Birkeland, M., Bui, E., Cloitre, M., Ehlers, A., Ford, J. D., Greene, T., Hansen, M., Harnett, N. G., Kaminer, D., Lewis, C., Minelli, A., Niles, B., Nugent, N. R., Roberts, N., Price, M., … Vujanovic, A. A. (2025). The impact of trauma and how to intervene: A narrative review of psychotraumatology over the past 15 years. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 16(1), 2458406. https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2025.2458406

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• Schnyder, U., Schafer, I., Aakvaag, H. F., Ajdukovic, D., Bakker, A., Bisson, J.I., Brewer, D., Cloitre, M., Dyb, G.A., Frewen,P., Lanza, J., Le Brocque, R., Lueger-Schuster, B., Mwiti, G.K., Oe, M., Rosner, R., Schellong, J., Shigemura, J., Wu, K., & Olff, M. (2017). The global collaboration on traumatic stress. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008198.2017.1403257