Pretreatment relationship characteristics predict outcomes from an uncontrolled trial of intensive, multicouple group PTSD treatment.

This study investigated whether pretreatment partner accommodation and relationship satisfaction predicted patient and partner treatment outcomes from an uncontrolled trial of an abbreviated, intensive, multicouple group version of CBCT for PTSD conducted with 24 active-duty military or veteran couples (96% male patients/female partners). In general, changes in patients’ PTSD and comorbid symptoms and relationship satisfaction did not vary by pretreatment partner accommodation or patients’ own pretreatment relationship satisfaction. In contrast, pretreatment relationship characteristics predicted partner outcomes. Partners who engaged in higher levels of accommodation pretreatment and partners who reported lower levels of pretreatment relationship satisfaction experienced greater declines in psychological distress following treatment. Also, partners who began the study relationally distressed exhibited significant increases in relationship satisfaction following treatment, whereas those who were not relationally distressed did not. Findings suggest that improvements generally do not vary by pretreatment relationship characteristics for patients, whereas partners who begin treatment with elevated relationship risk factors may be especially likely to experience improvement across outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved)
Source: Journal of Family Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Source Type: research