Effect of TIMBER on post-traumatic stress symptoms in rehabilitation patients with limb dysfunction after accidental trauma

To explore the impact of trauma interventions using mindfulness based extinction and reconsolidation (TIMBER) on post-traumatic stress symptoms in rehabilitation patients with limb dysfunction after accidental trauma.

Convenient sampling was used to select 46 rehabilitation patients with limb dysfunction after accidental trauma (impact of event scale-revised, IES-R total score ≥33) admitted to Department of Rehabilitation Medicine of the First Affiliated Hospital from March 2022 to May 2023.They were randomly divided into an intervention group (TIMBER intervention) and a control group (health education of knowledge about mental health). IES-R, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), and Self-Rating Scale of Sleep (SRSS) were employed to survey the participants before (T1), at the end of (T2), and 1 month after intervention (T3).The changes in post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and sleep were compared between the 2 groups of patients.

There were no statistically differences in demographic information and various psychological variables between the 2 groups at T1(P>0.05).The intervention group got their total and various dimensional scores of IES-R, and scores of anxiety, depression, and sleep at T2 and T3 significantly decreased when compared with these scores at T1(P < 0.01), and all the scores at T2 and T3 were obviously lower in the intervention group than the control group (P < 0.05).Compared with T1, the avoidance and intrusion scores and total IES-R score were declined in the control group at T2 and T3, with statistical significance (P < 0.05), while no such differences were observed in the scores of high alertness, anxiety, depression, and sleep (P>0.05).

TIMBER significantly improves the post-traumatic stress symptoms, anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, and sleep in rehabilitation patients with limb dysfunction after accidental trauma.