PMID- 34010757
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20211025
LR  - 20211025
IS  - 1873-6386 (Electronic)
IS  - 0160-2527 (Linking)
VI  - 77
DP  - 2021 Jul-Aug
TI  - Involvement in litigation in children with PTSD following motor vehicle accident: 
      Associations with emotional distress and treatment outcomes.
PG  - 101711
LID - S0160-2527(21)00040-6 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.ijlp.2021.101711 [doi]
AB  - OBJECTIVES: Litigation is common in the context of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder 
      (PTSD) and mild Traumatic Brain Injury (mTBI), adding contradicting motivations 
      to individuals' engagement in psychotherapeutic interventions. This study's main 
      goal was to explore the relationship between litigation status and emotional 
      distress among children with PTSD following motor vehicle accidents (MVAs). We 
      also present preliminary findings from a pilot study on treatment efficacy for 
      children with PTSD, with and without litigation. METHODS: Participants included 
      76 children with PTSD following MVA and their main caregiving parent. The 
      associations between litigation status (litigation involvement, litigation phase, 
      and litigation's emotional impact) and children's global distress, PTSD, 
      persistent post-concussion symptoms (PPCS), and sub-optimal effort, and parents' 
      PTSD symptoms were assessed before and after intervention for PTSD. Comorbid mTBI 
      was explored as a possible moderating factor. RESULTS: Involvement in litigation 
      was not related to children's and parents' pre-intervention distress, nor to the 
      presence of mTBI or to children's effort. However, higher emotional impact of 
      litigation on parents was associated with children's higher PPCS 
      pre-intervention. A pilot study on intervention outcomes found an improvement 
      both in children with and without litigation involvement. A greater decrease in 
      PPCS following intervention was found in children of parents with higher 
      emotional impact of litigation. CONCLUSIONS: The emotional impact of litigation 
      on parents should be considered while addressing children in litigation context. 
      However, this study's preliminary findings suggest that children with litigation 
      involvement may benefit from treatment, thus litigation should not serve solely 
      as an exclusion criterion for psychological intervention. A larger study should 
      further explore this issue.
CI  - Copyright (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
FAU - Shorer, Maayan
AU  - Shorer M
AD  - Department of Psychological Medicine, Schneider Children's Medical Center of 
      Israel, Petach-Tikva, Israel; Clinical Psychology Program, Ruppin Academic 
      Center, Emek-Hefer, Israel. Electronic address: maayans@ruppin.ac.il.
FAU - Fennig, Silvana
AU  - Fennig S
AD  - Department of Psychological Medicine, Schneider Children's Medical Center of 
      Israel, Petach-Tikva, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, 
      Tel Aviv, Israel.
FAU - Apter, Alan
AU  - Apter A
AD  - Department of Psychological Medicine, Schneider Children's Medical Center of 
      Israel, Petach-Tikva, Israel; Clinical Psychology Program, Ruppin Academic 
      Center, Emek-Hefer, Israel; Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Tel 
      Aviv, Israel.
FAU - Pilowsky Peleg, Tammy
AU  - Pilowsky Peleg T
AD  - Department of Psychological Medicine, Schneider Children's Medical Center of 
      Israel, Petach-Tikva, Israel; Department of Psychology, The Hebrew University of 
      Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20210516
PL  - Netherlands
TA  - Int J Law Psychiatry
JT  - International journal of law and psychiatry
JID - 7806862
SB  - IM
MH  - Accidents, Traffic
MH  - Child
MH  - Humans
MH  - Motor Vehicles
MH  - Pilot Projects
MH  - *Psychological Distress
MH  - *Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic/therapy
MH  - Treatment Outcome
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - Children
OT  - Intervention efficacy
OT  - Litigation
OT  - Mild traumatic brain injury
OT  - Post-traumatic stress disorder
EDAT- 2021/05/20 06:00
MHDA- 2021/10/26 06:00
CRDT- 2021/05/19 20:14
PHST- 2021/02/16 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2021/05/04 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2021/05/10 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2021/05/20 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2021/10/26 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2021/05/19 20:14 [entrez]
AID - S0160-2527(21)00040-6 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.ijlp.2021.101711 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Int J Law Psychiatry. 2021 Jul-Aug;77:101711. doi: 10.1016/j.ijlp.2021.101711. 
      Epub 2021 May 16.