An Effective Treatment for PTSD

Last month I wrote about the use of stellate ganglion block in treating post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.  I failed, however, to mention a successful behavioral treatment called Prolonged Exposure, or PE.  A meta-analysis of this approach is reported in the Clinical Psychological Review; here’s a summary.

PE involves identifying thoughts and situations that trigger the worst fear and then gently exposing the patient to them.  Patients must first summon up memories of the trauma (imaginal phase).  Then there is physical exposure to places or circumstances that call it up more vividly (in vivo phase).  Thirteen studies that included 675 patients who had multiple sessions were identified; they all had controls (either wait-listing or psychological–placebo treatment).

PE was significantly superior to the controls on all outcome measures, and at delayed follow-up.  On the other hand, PE was similarly effective as other ‘active’ treatments, such as cognitive behavioral therapy.  However, the average PE-treated patient fared better than 86% of patients at post-treatment using standard measures of PTSD, and is considered a highly effective treatment for PTSD by the authors of the study.

The pioneer of PE, Dr Edna Foa, is one of TIME Magazine’s “100 People Who Make a Difference”.  Her work is clearly making a big difference in treating an ever-more- prevalent disorder.