Effectiveness and acceptability of brief psychoeducational interventions after potentially traumatic events: a systematic review
Open accessAbstract
Background: Experiencing a potentially traumatic event can put individuals at risk for both short-term and long-term mental health problems. While many psychological interventions exist for those who have experienced potentially traumatic events, there remains controversy about the best ways to support them.Objective: This review explores the effect of brief psychoeducational interventions after potentially traumatic experiences on adult recipients’ mental health, attitudes towards mental health, and trauma-related knowledge, as well as the perceived acceptability of psychoeducation.Methods: Four electronic databases were searched for relevant published literature.Results: Ten papers were included in the review. There was no evidence that psychoeducation was any more effective in terms of reducing mental health symptoms than other interventions or no intervention at all. There was some evidence that psychoeducation improved attitudes towards and knowledge of mental health immediately post-intervention; one study examined whether these improvements were sustained over the long term and found that they were not. However, psychoeducation was generally highly regarded by participants.Conclusions: This review did not find sufficient evidence to support routine use of brief psychoeducation as a stand-alone intervention.
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Seven reviews evaluated educational interventions, and their reported benefits for distress-related outcomes were mixed; quality of included studies varied from low to high and some reviews did not assess quality.
“Seven reviews evaluated educational interventions.5258 The reported benefits of these interventions for distress-related outcomes were mixed and the quality of the included studies was reported to vary from low to high and some reviews did not assess quality.”
From Impact of healthcare interventions on distress following acute musculoskeletal/orthopaedic injury: A scoping review of systematic reviews (2024) · cites this paper as [52]
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- Authors
- Brooks, S. K., Weston, D., Wessely, S., & Greenberg, N.
- Affiliations
- King's College London (GB)
- Public Health England (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Brooks, Samantha K.
- Venue
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2021-01
- Volume
- 12
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1923110-1923110
- ISSN
- 2000-8066 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC8168745
- OpenAlex
- W3160922567
- Cited by
- 47
- References
- 30
- Citations by year
- 2026: 11 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 14 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 1
- FWCI
- 0.83
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- European Journal of Psychotraumatology (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- National Institute for Health Research Health Protection Research Unit
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
- Keywords
- psychoeducation, brief intervention, potentially traumatic events, post-traumatic stress, mental health, mental health attitudes, trauma knowledge, treatment acceptability, psychological intervention
- MeSH terms
- Psychosocial Support Systems, Crisis Intervention, Humans, Mental Health, Psychotherapy, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Wounds and Injuries, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
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