CoChat
Sign Up
Cited by 120Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ResearchSexual Assault and Victimization StudiesChild Abuse and Trauma

Rape treatment outcome research: Empirical findings and state of the literature

Open access
Vickerman, Katrina A., Margolin, Gayla·2009·Clinical Psychology Review
DOI 10.1016/j.cpr.2009.04.004PMC PMC2773678
Open this paper in CoChat — free account

Abstract

This article reviews empirical support for treatments targeting women sexually assaulted during adolescence or adulthood. Thirty-two articles were located using data from 20 separate samples. Of the 20 samples, 12 targeted victims with chronic symptoms, three focused on the acute period post-assault, two included women with chronic and acute symptoms, and three were secondary prevention programs. The majority of studies focus on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and/or anxiety as treatment targets. Cognitive Processing Therapy and Prolonged Exposure have garnered the most support with this population. Stress Inoculation Training and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing also show some efficacy. Of the four studies that compared active treatments, few differences were found. Overall, cognitive behavioral interventions lead to better PTSD outcomes than supportive counseling does. However, even in the strongest treatments more than one-third of women retain a PTSD diagnosis at post-treatment or drop out of treatment. Discussion highlights the paucity of research in this area, methodological limitations of examined studies, generalizability of findings, and important directions for future research at various stages of trauma recovery.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.cpr.2009.04.004

Cites

84 of 84 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

  • In high-income countries, there are effective treatments for trauma related to sexual violence.

    “Although treatment for symptoms related to sexual violence has been shown to be effective in high-income countries, evidence is lacking in low-income, conflict-affected countries.”

    From Controlled trial of psychotherapy for Congolese survivors of sexual violence (2013) · cites this paper as [8]

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 10

  1. Classen C Palesh O Aggarwal R 2005 Sexual revictimization review Trauma, Violence & Abuse 6 2 103 129 15753196
  2. Foa EB Dancu CV Hembree EA Jaycox LH Meadows EA Street GP 1999 The efficacy of exposure therapy, stress inoculation training and their combination in ameliorating PTSD for female victims of assault Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 67 194 200 10224729
  3. Institute of Medicine 2008 Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: An assessment of the evidence Washington, DC The National Academies Press
  4. Kilpatrick DG Veronen LJ 1983 Treatment for rape related problems: Crisis intervention is not enough Cohen LH Claiborn WL Spector CA Crisis Intervention 165 185 New York Human Sciences Press
  5. Kimball LA 2000 Alexithymia in survivors of sexual assault: Predicting treatment outcome Doctoral dissertation, University of Missouri-St. Louis Retrieved from Proquest Dissertation & Theses. (AAT 9950384)
  6. Lindsay JK 1995 Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (emdr) in the treatment of rape survivors Doctoral dissertation, University of Oregon Retrieved from Proquest Dissertation & Theses. (AAT 9519676)
  7. Resnick HS Kilpatrick DG Dansky BS Saunders BE Best CL 1993 Prevalence of civilian trauma and PTSD in a representative sample of women Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 61 985 991 8113499
  8. Rothbaum BO Foa EB 1999 Reclaiming Your Life After Rape: Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Client workbook New York, NY Oxford University Press
  9. Veronen LJ Kilpatrick DG 1982a November Stress inoculation training for victims of rape: Efficacy and differential findings Paper presented in a symposium entitled “Sexual Violence and Harassment” at the 16th Annual Convention of the Association for the Advancement of Behavior Therapy Los Angeles, CA
  10. Weaver TL Chard KM Resick PA 1998 Issues in treating rape and sexual assault Tarrier N Wells A Haddock G Treating complex cases: The cognitive processing therapy approach London, UK John Wiley & Sons

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Related

Authors
Vickerman, K. A., & Margolin, G.
Affiliations
University of Southern California (US)
Corresponding author
Vickerman, Katrina A.
ORCID
Venue
Clinical Psychology Review
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2009-07
Volume
29
Issue
5
Pages
431-448
ISSN
0272-7358 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.cpr.2009.04.004
PMC
PMC2773678
OpenAlex
W2077933853
Cited by
120
References
80
Citations by year
2025: 4 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 10 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 13 · 2017: 9 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 5 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 14 · 2012: 7
FWCI
0.82
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
Locations
  • Clinical Psychology Review (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (F31MH074201, F31 MH74201)
  • Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R01HD046807)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
  • Social Sciences › Gender Studies › Sexual Assault and Victimization Studies
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
Keywords
rape, sexual assault, women, post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, anxiety, cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure, stress inoculation training, EMDR, cognitive-behavioral intervention, supportive counseling, secondary prevention, treatment outcomes
MeSH terms
Adolescent, Adult, Anxiety Disorders, Counseling, Depressive Disorder, Female, Humans, Rape, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Treatment Outcome, Crime Victims, Young Adult

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review