4.2 Article

The bumpy road of trauma-focused treatment: Posttraumatic stress disorder symptom exacerbation in people with psychosis

Journal

JOURNAL OF TRAUMATIC STRESS
Volume 36, Issue 2, Pages 299-309

Publisher

WILEY
DOI: 10.1002/jts.22907

Keywords

-

Ask authors/readers for more resources

This study investigated symptom exacerbation during trauma-focused therapy in people with PTSD and psychosis. The results showed that symptom exacerbation was common but not associated with poor treatment outcomes or treatment drop-out. Therefore, symptom exacerbation should not be a barrier to implementing trauma-focused therapy in this population.
Concern for symptom exacerbation and treatment drop-out is an important barrier to the implementation of trauma-focused therapy (TFT), especially in people with a psychotic disorder. This study, which was part of a multicenter randomized controlled trial, investigated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom exacerbation during eye movement desensitization reprocessing (EMDR) therapy and prolonged exposure (PE) in a sample of 99 participants with PTSD and psychosis. Symptom exacerbations during the first four sessions (early exacerbation) and between-session exacerbations over the course of therapy were monitored using the PTSD Symptom Scale-Self Report. Analyses of covariance and chi-square tests were conducted to investigate exacerbation rates and their associations with treatment response and drop-out. Both early exacerbation and between-session exacerbation were relatively common (32.3% and 46.5%, respectively) but were unrelated to poor treatment response or an increased likelihood of treatment drop-out. Both clinicians and patients need to be aware that symptom exacerbation during TFT is common and not related to poor outcomes. Symptom exacerbation can be part of the therapeutic process, should be acknowledged and guided, and should not be a barrier to the implementation of TFT in people with psychosis.

Authors

I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.

Reviews

Primary Rating

4.2
Not enough ratings

Secondary Ratings

Novelty
-
Significance
-
Scientific rigor
-
Rate this paper

Recommended

No Data Available
No Data Available