A systematic review of empirical studies of psychotherapy with women who were sexually abused as children.

Abstract There are few empirical outcome studies of psychotherapies with women exposed to childhood sexual abuse (CSA). The aims of this review were to examine designs and outcomes of such studies. Several publication databases were searched for studies based on defined inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis with weighted standardized effect sizes was performed on 12 controlled studies, and unweighted effect sizes were calculated for pre-post treatment gains of 11 noncontrolled studies. Persistence of gains from posttreatment to follow-up was mostly found in 9 follow-up studies. Fifteen studies examined short-term group (≤20 sessions) psychotherapies. All studies examined treatment effectiveness, and they mostly had a low quality of design. For posttreatment gains, mean total effect size was .63 in controlled studies. Effect sizes for noncontrolled studies were somewhat higher. Minimal changes from posttreatment to follow-up were observed. Multicenter studies with better design are needed, but the theoretical underpinnings for specific therapies in women with CSA should first be reexamined.