The SOLAR Group Program to Promote Recovery after Disaster and Trauma-A Randomized Controlled Feasibility Trial among German Trauma Survivors
Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Many disaster and trauma survivors experience persistent subclinical distress that places them at risk of developing a mental health disorder. This study describes the first European feasibility study of a brief and scalable skills-based intervention targeting persistent subclinical distress following disasters and trauma. METHOD: = 15). The primary outcome was feasibility, operationalized through eligibility rate, recruitment speed, treatment adherence, dropout rate, and participant satisfaction with the program. Secondary outcomes were psychological distress, symptoms of insomnia, posttraumatic stress disorder, patient-centered outcomes, quality of life, and perceived social support. RESULTS: Eligibility rate was 33.6%; recruitment speed was two days per participant; 92.9% completed at least four of five sessions; dropout rate was 10.0%; 92.3% were "very satisfied" with the program. Between-group change scores showed a large effect size for patient-centered outcomes. Medium effect sizes were found for symptoms of insomnia, perceived social support, and quality of life. Small effects were identified for reductions in distress and functional impairment. DISCUSSION: The application of the SOLAR group program within a randomized controlled trial was feasible. Its efficacy should be further tested in a larger trial. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
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 a randomized controlled feasibility study of N = 30 German survivors of different types of trauma, participants in the SOLAR group intervention showed a greater reduction in psychological distress post-intervention compared to a wait list control group.
“Participants in the SOLAR group intervention showed a greater reduction in psychological distress, symptoms of insomnia, patient-centered outcomes, functional impairment, quality of life, and perceived social support post-intervention, compared to a wait list control group.”
In the SOLAR pilot randomized controlled feasibility study, symptoms of PTSD did not decrease more greatly in the intervention group relative to the control group.
“Symptoms of PTSD did not decrease more greatly in the intervention group relative to the control group.”
The long-term effectiveness of some interventions cannot be assessed because ten completed studies on these interventions did not report follow-up measurements.
“Furthermore, the long-term effectiveness of some interventions cannot be assessed because ten completed studies on these interventions did not report follow-up measurements [21,27,35,36,37,40,41,47,53,57].”
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Lotzin, A., Franc de Pommereau, A., & Laskowsky, I. (2023) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph20075339 · Cited by 25 · see citing works
“Lotzin, Hinrichsen, Kenntemich, Freyberg, Lau, & O’Donnell (2021) [41] Skills fOr Life Adjustment and Resilience (SOLAR) [6] RCT N = 30 Traumatic events Reduction in post-disaster distress Face-to-face Adults Five SOLAR was effective in reducing psychological distress, but not PTSD symptoms, at post-intervention.”
BackgroundMethodInfluentialSelf-citationWatson, P. (2022) · Current Treatment Options in Psychiatry · doi:10.1007/s40501-021-00253-z · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Lotzin, A., Krause, L., Acquarini, E., Ajduković, D., Anastassiou‐Hadjicharalambous, X., Ardino, V., Bondjers, K., Böttche, M., Dragan, M., Figueiredo‐Braga, M., et al. (2022) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008066.2022.2138099 · Cited by 17 · see citing works
“While we found the fi rst evidence for their validity (Lotzin et al., 2022), the measure has not been evaluated previously.”
InfluentialSelf-citationCowlishaw, S., Gibson, K., Alexander, S., Howard, A., Agathos, J. A., Strauven, S., Chisholm, K., Fredrickson, J., Pham, T. T. L., Lau, W., et al. (2023) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008066.2023.2284032 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
“Gibson et al. (2021) found SOLAR to be e ffi cacious at three years post-cyclone; Lotzin et al. (2022) delivered the intervention to a sample of trauma survivors where time since trauma ranged from months to years; while in this current study, we delivered SOLAR approximately one year after wild fi…”
BackgroundMethodResultSelf-citationPeng, M., Xiao, T., Carter, B., Chen, P., & Shearer, J. (2022) · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · doi:10.3390/ijerph192315847 · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Trajectory of adjustment difficulties following disaster: 10-year longitudinal cohort study
Pacella, B. J., Cowlishaw, S., Gibbs, L. F., Bryant, R. A., Brady, K., Gallagher, H. C., Molyneaux, R., Gibson, K., Block, K., Harms, L., et al. (2024) · BJPsych Open · doi:10.1192/bjo.2024.3 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“46 Both of these interventions are brief”
Self-citationWang, X., Weng, A., Lian, J., Chang, J., Fang, Q., & Hu, Y. (2024) · Nurse Education Today · doi:10.1016/j.nedt.2024.106383 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Metcalf, O., Gibson, K., Fredrickson, J., Finlayson-Short, L., Varker, T., & O'Donnell, M. L. (2023) · BMJ Open · doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062710 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Self-citationVarker, T., Metcalf, O., Mok, Y. F., Lamb, K. E., Fredrickson, J., Arjmand, H., Howlett, P., Gibson, K., Pham, L., Everett, K., et al. (2025) · npj Digital Medicine · doi:10.1038/s41746-025-02092-1 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“The SOLAR program has growing evidence, including randomized controlled trials, supporting its ef fi cacy 21 – 24 .”
Self-citation„Skills fOr Life Adjustment and Resilience“ Programm
Lotzin, A., Hinrichsen, I., Kenntemich, L., Freyberg, R.-C., Lau, W., Gibson, K., & O'Donnell, M. L. (2021) · Psychotherapeut · doi:10.1007/s00278-021-00535-0 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationFirefighters face repeat trauma. We learned how to reduce their risk of PTSD
O'Donnell, M., & Varker, T. (2026) · doi:10.64628/aa.uejxvtdah
Self-citationRichardson, M., Black, T., de Wit, K., Bain, B., Trolley, E., & Cramm, H. A. (2026) · Journal of Military Veteran and Family Health · doi:10.3138/jmvfh-2025-0080
- Authors
- Lotzin, A., Hinrichsen, I., Kenntemich, L., Freyberg, R.-C., Lau, W., & O'Donnell, M.
- Venue
- Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy
- Published
- 2022-01
- Volume
- 14
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 161-171
- ISSN
- 1942-9681 (ISSN-L)
- 1942-969X
- OpenAlex
- W3202445553
- Cited by
- 12
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 2 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 1.54
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Psychological Trauma Theory Research Practice and Policy (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Funders
- University of Hamburg (P442424)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health
- Health Sciences › Health Professions › Emergency Medical Services › Disaster Response and Management
- Keywords
- disaster survivors, trauma survivors, post-traumatic stress disorder, psychological recovery, skills-based intervention, group intervention, insomnia, perceived social support, quality of life, functional disability, feasibility, medication adherence
- MeSH terms
- Disasters, Feasibility Studies, Humans, Quality of Life, Stress, Psychological, Survivors
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
