VOA慢速英语:Prolonged Exposure Therapy Helps Adolescent Girls

Mental health experts often use a treatment called "prolonged exposure therapy" to help soldiers returning from battle, it is considered the first step in treating soldiers who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder(PTSD). Now, researchers have found the treatment can also help adolescent girls who were sexually abused as children.
心理健康专家经常使用一种名为“长期暴露疗法”来帮助从战场归来的士兵，它被认为是治疗患上创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）的士兵的第一步。如今，研究人员发现这种疗法也可以帮助那些儿童时期遭到性侵的少女。

In prolonged exposure therapy - or PET - patients are asked to remember and then talk about the feelings and thoughts that cause them to suffer. They do this until these memories are no longer painful. The desensitizing method can provide help to soldiers who developed emotional problems because of a wartime experiences.
在长期暴露疗法（PET）中，患者被要求回忆然后谈论让他们痛苦的情感或想法，直到这些回忆都不再痛苦。这种脱敏疗法可以帮助因战争经历患上情绪问题的士兵。

Post-traumatic stress disorder is not limited to military veterans. It is also seen in young women who were sexually abused or raped when they were children.
创伤后应激障碍并不局限于退伍军人，它也常出现于儿童时被性侵犯或强奸的年轻女性中。

Edna Foa is a clinical psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania, she helped to develop prolonged exposure therapy for PTSD. She says young women who were abused at an earlier age often get what she calls supportive counseling, but she says that kind of treatment usually helps them for only a short period of time.
Edna Foa是宾夕法尼亚大学的临床心理学家。她协助制定长期暴露疗法治疗创伤后应激障碍。她说，年幼时遭到性侵的年轻女性通常会得到她所说的支持辅导，但她说那种疗法只能在短时间内帮助她们。

"It kind of reduces the pain in the short run; but in the long run, it actually maintains the symptoms and actually generates chronic post-traumatic stress disorder," said Foa.
Foa说，“它在短期内能减少痛苦，但是从长远来看，它实际上维持了该症状，并且产生慢性创伤后应激障碍。”

Doctor Foa says teenages who receive supportive counseling may avoid situations that bring back memories of their abuse. She believes PET can offer the abused girls a cure that lasts longer. She says it gives them the skills they need to face the memories of their abuse.
Foa博士称，接受支持辅导的青少年可以避免回忆受虐情景。她认为长期暴露疗法能够为受侵女孩提供一个持续时间更长的治疗。她说，这种疗法能为她们提供面对受侵记忆所需的技能。

Doctor Foa and her team are mended the PET program to meet the emotional maturity level of young people, then they compared it to supportive counseling in a group of sixty sexually abused girls. All the girls suffered from PTSD and was 13 to 18 years of age. Each girl got 14 sessions of either PET or supportive counseling. Each meeting lasted about 60 to 90 minutes.
Foa博士和她的团队改进了长期暴露疗法以满足年轻人的情感成熟度级别，然后将一组60名被性侵女孩将它与支持辅导进行对比。所有患上创伤后应激障碍的女孩的年龄都介于13到18岁之间。每个女孩得到了长期暴露疗法或支持辅导的14次治疗，每次治疗持续大约60到90分钟。

Doctor Foa says, during treatment, those who received PET had a larger decrease in PTSD symptoms and depression, compared to the other girls. They also had a greater improvement in the quality of life.
Foa博士称，在治疗过程中，相比其他女孩，那些接受长期暴露疗法的女孩在创伤后应激障碍症状和抑郁上都降低了很多，她们的生活质量也有较大改善。

"Most of the girls who received prolonged exposure actually lost the diagnosis of PTSD and really did very well even a year after, because we followed them for up to a year after the treatment," said Foa.
Foa说，“大多数接受长期暴露的女孩竟然失去了创伤后应激障碍的症状，甚至是在一年后也都表现很好。因为我们在治疗后跟进了一年多时间。”

Doc Foa says social workers in community mental health centers can be trained in prolonged exposure therapy in just four days.
Foa博士称，社区心理健康中心的工作人员可以在短短四天内得到长期暴露疗法的培训。