The findings suggest effective and lasting approaches for symptoms of PTSD-a debilitating and typically chronic disorder that rarely diminishes spontaneously and is associated with significant distress, impairment and considerable economic costs.<\/p>\n For U.S.-based military veterans alone, lost productivity, health-care and other costs are estimated to be in the billions of dollars, according to recent peer-reviewed research.<\/p>\n The paper, published in the journal\u00a0Clinical Psychology Review<\/em>, was based on a meta-analysis of 32 PTSD-related studies-involving 72 treatment conditions-that followed up with patients at least six months, and up to nearly two years, after treatment ended.<\/p>\n Patients displayed less-intense symptoms up to two years after treatment ended, compared to six months post-therapy<\/strong>, according to the study.<\/p>\n “It is possible that the longer time between post-treatment and follow-up assessments may provide a better opportunity for new skills to be practiced and reinforced, and for treatment gains to crystallize,” said Alex Kline, a co-author of the study and a PhD student in adult clinical psychology in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Case Western Reserve.<\/p>\n PTSD treatments effective in both the short- and long-term include trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure therapy<\/strong>. Both are relatively common in veterans’ facilities yet are inconsistently available elsewhere-a major barrier to access and effective treatment, Kline said.<\/p>\n “It’s important to get a better understanding of who responds to what and why,” Kline said. “Showing that PTSD treatment gains are being maintained is meaningful for health-care providers choosing how to improve patient outcomes and drive down costs of ineffectual care.”<\/p>\n Broadly, cognitive behavioral therapy reduces symptoms by changing patient behavior and addressing maladaptive thoughts. In particular, exposure therapy-considered the current standard for PTSD treatment-exposes patients to feared stimuli under deliberate, controlled, safe conditions.<\/p>\n While some PTSD patients do not respond to current treatments, most do-across a range of populations, settings and trauma types.<\/p>\n PTSD often co-occurs with depression, but the findings run counter to a recent similar study of long-term depression outcomes, where effectiveness decreased with longer follow-up periods. That was noteworthy, Kline said, given the diagnostic overlap between PTSD and depression and high rates of co-occurrence between the two disorders.<\/p>\n “Eventually, our findings and others could optimize treatments,” he said. “The goal is to match patients with what’s best for them.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Case Western Reserve University press release: Both civilians and military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reap long-term benefits from psychotherapies used for short-term treatment, according to a… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5,338],"tags":[47,48,92,51,23,62,50,24],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26292"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26292"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26319,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26292\/revisions\/26319"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"http:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/psychotherapy-upset.jpg\")
Both civilians and military veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) reap long-term benefits from psychotherapies used for short-term treatment<\/strong>, according to a new study from Case Western Reserve University.<\/p>\n