VER477418_ENG_150dpi.pdf (246.06 kB)
Translated article: Exposure or Stabilization: How Do Behavioral Therapists Plan the Outpatient Treatment of Patients with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder?
journal contribution
posted on 2018-04-16, 14:06 authored by Monika Equit, Stefanie Maurer, Tanja Michael, Volker KöllnerBackground: According to national and international guidelines,
trauma-focused treatments such as trauma-focused cognitive-
behavioral therapies or eye movement desensitization
and reprocessing (EMDR) are first-choice methods in the treatment
of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Meta-analyses consistently show highest effect sizes for these
treatments. This results in clear implications for the treatment
of patients with PTSD. The present study aimed to assess the
implementation of a psychological treatment of PTSD patients
according to the therapy guidelines. Reports to the evaluator
for the German health-care system in the process of application
for outpatient psychotherapy are analyzed. Patients and
Methods: 1,053 reports were analyzed. Finally, 167 reports
mentioning a traumatic event, the diagnosis of a PTSD, or a
trauma-focused treatment were included in the study. Results:
74.3% of the treatment plans were rated as conforming to the
guidelines (i.e., trauma-focused exposure for patients with
PTSD diagnosis and no trauma-focused exposure for patients
without PTSD diagnosis). In 70.3% of the reports to the evaluator
for patients with PTSD, trauma-focused exposure was described.
There were no indications that the diagnosis of a PTSD
was applied too often by established therapists. The overall validity
of the diagnoses was high. Conclusion: For approximately
30% of the patients with PTSD, outpatient psychotherapists
did not mention trauma-focused exposure therapy in their reports,
i.e. the treatment with the highest clinical evidence was
not used. Further studies should be made to clarify the reasons
for this.
