The effectiveness of psychological debriefing with vicarious trauma: A meta-analysis

Post-traumatic psychiatric reactions to physical trauma are readily acknowledged and accepted. However, there is a relatively new phenomenon of developing similar reactions after providing emergency care to such patients. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a crisis intervention technique known as group psychological debriefing, which is designed to mitigate the impact of post-traumatic morbidity in individuals exposed to vicarious traumatization. Using adequately controlled, peer-reviewed journal articles and clinical proceedings as the database, 698 subjects from 10 investigations were submitted to a meta-analysis. The results support the effectiveness of group psychological debriefings in alleviating the effects of vicarious psychological distress in emergency care providers. Copyright (C) 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.