The D's

Question 1

Where did the idea of psychological debriefing come from?

Answer 1

The idea that psychological debriefing could be employed as a way of preventing subsequent psychiatric disorder following traumatic exposure was proposed by Mitchell (1983).

Question 2

What is critical incident stress debriefing (CISD)?

Answer 2

To some extent critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) was a development of operational debriefing employed by the armed forces to gain information about a mission. These techniques had been pioneered by the historian S.L.A. Marshall (1947) during World War Two as a way of obtaining an accurate account of battles from groups of combatants.

Question 3

What are the seven stages in the debriefing process*?

*of incident stress debriefing (CISD)

Answer 3

Mitchell and Dygregov identified seven stages in the debriefing process:

1 introduction
2 the facts
3 thoughts and sensory impressions
4 emotional reactions
5 normalisation and anticipatory guidance
6 planning for the future
7 disengagement (Dygregov, 1989).

Question 4

What is the difference between ‘multiple stress debriefing’ and incident stress debriefing (CISD)?

Answer 4

‘multiple stress debriefing’, has a similar model but with greater emphasis on discussion of previous experience of trauma and coping.

Question 5

When did debriefing became a standard intervention?

Answer 5

As a result of Mitchell’s work, debriefing became a standard intervention following traumatic events during the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Question 6

Was debriefing effective?

Answer 6

subsequent evaluations showed that single-session, individual debriefing did not reduce psychological distress, neither did it prevent the onset of PTSD (van Emmerik, Kamphuis, Hulsbosch and Emmelkamp, 2002; Wessely et al., 1999a).