Dr. Genevieve Belleville, Ph.D.

Online Treatment Platform

for Traumatic Stress Disorders

There are 636,000 self-reported cases of sexual assault annually in Canada, and nine out of ten persons who have experienced sexual assault are women. Cognitive and behavioural therapies (CBT) are the treatment of choice for many psychological problems arising from sexual assault. However, accessing CBT is a significant challenge, especially for women who have experienced sexual assault who may be ashamed and not disclose the sexual assault. Online CBT is an effective option to circumvent these barriers. In addition to being accessible and less resource-intensive, studies report that patients are less inhibited and that the online environment provides greater emotional safety. There is also a growing body of evidence that online CBT programs requiring little or no contact with a mental health professional are effective, this having been demonstrated primarily with individuals with anxiety and mood disorders. But when it comes to treating the psychological symptoms of sexual assault in potentially vulnerable individuals, can we really suggest a self-care approach? There is no direct empirical evidence to support such a recommendation, and it is this important question that this project wishes to address. To compare the effectiveness, acceptability and user engagement in a self-managed treatment platform with or without the support of a therapist to reduce post-traumatic symptoms, depression and insomnia in people who have suffered one or more sexual assaults, 204 victims of sexual assault experiencing significant distress will be recruited and randomly assigned to either the self-managed or the therapist-assisted online treatment condition. Participants will complete measures assessing post-traumatic stress disorder, insomnia, depression, anxiety, and maladaptive beliefs before, during, after and 3 months after treatment. Secondary outcome will be and appreciation of the online treatment measures by a self-report questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. If effective in reducing symptoms, this treatment would offer the potential to support a self-care approach to treating a wide range of psychological symptoms resulting from sexual assault. The self-managed online platform would fill a service gap deplored by this population.