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ce after living a traumatic event, such as a terrorist
attack. We know now that there are psychological
treatments, in particular, trauma-focused cogniti-
ve-behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), which has proved
effective and useful in clinical practice for the treat-
ment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and
of depression and anxiety disorders that victims of
terrorist attacks may experience. Such efficiency
has been demonstrated, even in cases with victims
of terrorist attacks, suffering from these disorders
in the very long term (15-25 years after the attac-
ks)
10
. In summary, the results of our research cu-
rrently suggest that TF-CBT would be the preferred
therapeutic alternative for victims of terrorism who
suffer from PTSD, at least while we await for more
studies with additional favorable results on the
effectiveness of exposure therapy to be published,
and while there are no further studies on the spe-
cific effectiveness of other psychological therapies
that have proved effective for PTSD derived from
other traumatic events (anxiety control training and
EMDR) over other psychological or pharmacological
therapies which have never been tested on victims
of terrorism and lack the adequate empirical su-
pport in terms of effectiveness for PTSD produced
by other traumatic situations, or are less effective
to treat it11. TF-CBT is based on the application of
cognitive restructuring techniques on the thoughts
and beliefs that prolong post-traumatic symptoma-
tology and interoceptive and live avoidance to trau-
10. García-Vera, M. P., and Sanz, J. (2016). Psychopathological
effects of terrorist attacks on adult victims and their treatment:
Current status. Papeles del Psicólogo (Psychology papers), 37, 3-13
ma-related stimuli. Such avoidance may, therefore hinder
the recovery, reconstruction and reprocessing of the ex-
perience lived, as well as the processing and assimilation
of everything that happened.