... comparability is limited by the great variations between different studies in terms of gender and age structure, input symptomatology and treatment focus. Reference groups are often lacking, due to ethical considerations. As yet few writers have employed a more experimental design and compared different treatments. Prospective longitudinal follow-up studies of sexually abused children and treatment outcome studies are urgently needed (Green 1993). In the last few years there is an encouraging growth in the number of experimental studies. Those with sexually abused children randomly distributed between treatment group and control group have presented a fairly unanimous picture, namely that of the treatment groups developing significantly better than the control groups. Many of these studies support the cognitive behavioural therapy as having a better effect on a number of different problems. Briere and Elliot (1994) described three stages of victim response including : (1) initial posttraumatic stress, painful emotions, and cognitive ...

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