[Cognitive behavioral therapy for adolescents suffering from complex trauma disorder]

Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Developmental Trauma Disorder are discussed as new diagnostic entities representing the broad spectrum of trauma-related symptoms of children and adolescents. However, the psychotherapy of severe and complex trauma during adolescence is challenging because trauma-associated symptoms like attachment problems, the expectation of self-inefficacy and dissociation may complicate therapeutic work and limit treatment outcome. Therefore it is necessary to develop evidence-based treatment approaches for these mental disorders. Trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy has been successfully evaluated for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Actual treatment approaches combine strategies from Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT) with cognitive behavioral techniques of trauma therapy for the treatment of complex trauma disorder. This article gives a practical overview about cognitive-behavioral treatment approaches and discusses problems of their implementation in the clinical routine of child and adolescent psychiatrists/psychotherapists.