Effectiveness of a Brief Psychological Intervention (P-CRP) for Complex Trauma and Loss (P-CRP)

February 23, 2026 updated by: Zahide Betül Baydar

First Pilot RCT of Episodic-Buffer-Oriented P-CRP for Adults Complex Loss and Trauma

The purpose of this retrospective study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a new psychotherapy technique called Psychological Cognitive Reprocessing Procedure (P-CRP) in treating trauma symptoms. The P-CRP intervention was developed and manualized by the principal investigator (Z.B.Baydar). Participants were randomly assigned to either the P-CRP intervention group, an active control group, or a waitlist condition. The study aimed to determine if this new method, which focused on episodic buffer processing, significantly reduced trauma-related psychological distress compared to standard approaches. Data collected during the intervention phase were analyzed to assess the efficacy of the P-CRP technique.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

43

Phase

  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Turkey (Türkiye)
    • Istanbul
      • Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey (Türkiye), 34876
        • Zahide Betül Baydar

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

  • Adult
  • Older Adult

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Individuals were excluded if they had:

  1. An Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) score greater than 7.
  2. A history of psychotic disorder or bipolar disorder.
  3. Current suicide risk.
  4. Substance use disorder.
  5. Prior therapeutic contact with the researcher.
  6. A target traumatic event that had occurred more than one year earlier.
  7. Not meeting clinical DSM-5 criteria for PTSD during the clinician-administered semi-structured interview, regardless of initial self-report scores.
  8. Current participation in any other form of psychotherapy or psychiatric intervention.

Individuals were included if they had:

  1. Meeting DSM-5 criteria for PTSD symptoms (verified by IES-R scores and clinician-led semi-structured interview).
  2. Having experienced a target traumatic event or loss within the past 12 months.
  3. Willingness to provide informed consent and participate in all intervention sessions.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Treatment
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Psychological-cognitive reprocessing procedure (P-CRP).
The P-CRP was the experimental group receiving four session the intervention. The Psychological-Cognitive Reprocessing Procedure (P-CRP) is a brief and a neuro-psychological intervention based on the episodic buffer model. This process facilitates the separation of cognitions from automatic processing and pulls traumatic fragments into the episodic buffer through simultaneous neuronal firing. This integration helps resolve the semantic fragmentation caused by trauma, allowing for cognitive reintegration and meaning making.
Behavioral: Psychological-cognitive reprocessing procedure (P-CRP).
Unlike traditional approaches, the traumatic imagery is not directly targeted in the first session. The intervention begins with the silent repetition of a word or phrase representing the core negative belief associated with the traumatic experience. . During each 1-minute set, bilateral stimulation (synchronized tapping on the shoulders only) is applied, allowing the client to process the traumatic material through spontaneously emerging associations selected by the mind itself. Rather than relying on external direction, the protocol activates internal self-regulation capacities. In this respect, it aims to promote semantic and symbolic reorganization, differing from classical cognitive restructuring or desensitization-based methods. The decision about which aspect of the experience will be processed or desensitized is determined by the client's own mental flow, thereby reinforcing a sense of trust in the mind's capacity despite the traumatic history.
Active Comparator: Expressive Narrative and Symbolic Drawing (ENSD)
Control participants received four session a narrative-based expressive and symbolic drawing protocol. The intervention delivered to the control group can be characterized as an active, experiential, projective, and sensory-supported approach.
Behavioral: Expressive Narrative and Symbolic Drawing (ENSD)
Following initial anamnesis and psychoeducation, clients recounted their trauma and drew a self-selected symbol of the event using their non-dominant hand. Each session involved discussing the memory and updating this symbol to facilitate indirect processing through creative expression.
No Intervention: Waitlist Group
Participants in this group did not receive any active psychological intervention during the study period. They completed the pre-test and follow-up assessments at the same time intervals as the intervention groups. Following the completion of the follow-up phase, participants in the wait-list group were offered a psychological intervention protocol based on the study's findings to ensure ethical treatment standards.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
The Impact of Event Scale -Revised (IES-R)
Time Frame: Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10) .
The IES-R is a 22-item self-report scale designed to assess the psychological impact of traumatic experiences across three subdimensions: intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. Items are rated on a 5-point Likert scale (0 = not at all to 4 = extremely) based on symptom frequency over the past seven days. Total scores range from 0 to 88, where higher scores indicate greater severity of post-traumatic stress symptoms. According to the literature, scores of 33 and above suggest a probable PTSD diagnosis. The Turkish adaptation was used, which demonstrated high validity and reliability.
Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10) .

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI).
Time Frame: Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10)
At the beginning of the scale, four demographic questions are included (name, gender, age, and occupation). The instrument uses a four-point Likert-type response format. The State Anxiety subscale consists of 20 items rated on a scale from (1) Not at all to (4) Very much so. The Trait Anxiety subscale also contains 20 items, with response options ranging from (1) Almost never to (4) Almost always. Cronbach's alpha coefficients reported in the Turkish adaptation were α = .72 for the State Anxiety subscale, α = .67 for the Trait Anxiety subscale, and α = .70 for the total scale; overall reliability values for the instrument have been reported to fall between α = .60 and α = .80.
Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10)
The Body Sensations Questionnaire (BSQ).
Time Frame: Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10)
It is a 17-item self-report measure assessing fear of bodily sensations associated with arousal and panic. Cronbach's alpha for the scale is reported as .92; in the current study, internal consistency was α = .93.
Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10)
The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS)
Time Frame: Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10)
Scale is a 20-item scale consisting of 10 positive and 10 negative affect items. In the present study, Cronbach's alpha coefficients were α = .86 for Positive Affect and α = .82 for Negative Affect.
Baseline (Week 0), Post-intervention (Week 6), and Follow-up (Week 10)

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Zahide Betül Baydar

Collaborators

Istanbul Rumeli University

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Zahide B. Baydar, Clinical Psychologist (Msc.), Istanbul Rumeli University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

March 5, 2025

Primary Completion (Actual)

June 11, 2025

Study Completion (Actual)

July 11, 2025

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

January 1, 2026

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 14, 2026

First Posted (Actual)

January 22, 2026

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

February 25, 2026

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 23, 2026

Last Verified

January 1, 2026

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • E-53938333-050-50007

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

IPD Plan Description

The datasets generated and analyzed during the current study are not publicly available due to participant confidentiality and ethical restrictions established in the informed consent agreement. However, de-identified data may be made available from the corresponding author ([Z.B.B]) upon reasonable request for scientific purposes.

Drug and device information, study documents

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated drug product

No

Studies a U.S. FDA-regulated device product

No

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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