Are 60-Minute Prolonged Exposure Sessions With 20-Minute Imaginal Exposure to Traumatic Memories Sufficient to Successfully Treat PTSD? A Randomized Noninferiority Clinical Trial.

Are 60-Minute Prolonged Exposure Sessions With 20-Minute Imaginal Exposure to Traumatic Memories Sufficient to Successfully Treat PTSD? A Randomized Noninferiority Clinical Trial. Behav Ther. 2015 May;46(3):328-41 Authors: Nacasch N, Huppert JD, Su YJ, Kivity Y, Dinshtein Y, Yeh R, Foa EB Abstract The study aims to determine whether 60-minute sessions of prolonged exposure (PE) that include 20minutes of imaginal exposure (IE) are noninferior to the standard 90-minute sessions that include 40minutes of IE in treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and to explore the relationship of treatment outcome to within- and between-session habituation and change in negative cognitions. Thirty-nine adult veterans with chronic PTSD were randomly assigned to 90-minute (n=19) or 60-minute (n=20) sessions of PE. PTSD symptoms were assessed by an unaware independent evaluator before and after treatment and at 6-month follow-up. Self-reports of depression and negative cognitions were assessed before and after treatment. Participants in both conditions showed significant reductions in PTSD symptoms. Sixty-minute sessions were found to be noninferior to 90-minute sessions in reducing PTSD symptoms, as the upper bound of the 95% confidence interval for the difference between conditions in the PTSD Symptom Scale-Interview (posttreatment: 6.00; follow-up: 6.77) was below the predefined noninferiority margin (7.00). Participants receiving shorter sess...
Source: Behavior Therapy - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Behav Ther Source Type: research