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From VOA Learning English, |
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this is the Health Report. |
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Mental health experts often use a treatment |
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called "prolonged exposure therapy" |
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to help soldiers returning from battle, |
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it is considered the first step in treating soldiers |
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who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). |
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Now, researchers have found the treatment |
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can also help adolescent girls |
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who were sexually abused as children. |
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In prolonged exposure therapy - or PET |
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- patients are asked to remember |
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and then talk about the feelings |
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and thoughts that cause them to suffer. |
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They do this until these memories are no longer painful. |
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The desensitizing method can provide help to soldiers |
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who developed emotional problems |
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because of a wartime experiences. |
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Post-traumatic stress disorder |
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is not limited to military veterans. |
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It is also seen in young women |
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who were sexually abused or raped |
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when they were children. |
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Edna Foa is a clinical psychologist |
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at the University of Pennsylvania, |
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she helped to develop prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD. |
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She says young women who were abused at an earlier age |
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often get what she calls supportive counseling, |
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but she says that kind of treatment usually helps them |
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for only a short period of time. |
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"It kind of reduces the pain in the short run; |
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but in the long run, |
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it actually maintains the symptoms and actually generates |
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chronic post-traumatic stress disorder," said Foa. |
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Doctor Foa says teenages who receive supportive counseling |
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may avoid situations that bring back memories of their abuse. |
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She believes PET can offer the abused girls a cure that lasts longer. |
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She says it gives them the skills they need |
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to face the memories of their abuse. |
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Doctor Foa and her team are mended the PET program |
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to meet the emotional maturity level of young people, |
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then they compared it to supportive counseling |
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in a group of sixty sexually abused girls. |
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All the girls suffered from PTSD and was 13 to 18 years of age. |
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Each girl got 14 sessions of either PET or supportive counseling. |
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Each meeting lasted about 60 to 90 minutes. |
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Doctor Foa says, during treatment, |
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those who received PET had a larger decrease |
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in PTSD symptoms and depression, compared to the other girls. |
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They also had a greater improvement in the quality of life. |
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"Most of the girls who received prolonged exposure |
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actually lost the diagnosis of PTSD |
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and really did very well even a year after, |
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because we followed them for up to a year |
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after the treatment," said Foa. |
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Doc Foa says social workers in community mental health centers |
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can be trained in prolonged exposure therapy in just four days. |
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And that's the VOA Learning English Health Report. |
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I'm Christopher Cruise. |