Do early responders and treatment non‐responders offer guidance to make CPT group a more effective treatment?

Background Treatment dropout has been problematic with evidence‐based treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including cognitive processing therapy (CPT). This study sought to evaluate whether CPT group contributed to symptom improvement among treatment completers and non‐completers. M...

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Published inJournal of clinical psychology Vol. 78; no. 7; pp. 1376 - 1387
Main Authors Williams, M. Wright, King‐Casas, Brooks, Chiu, Pearl H., Sciarrino, Nicole, Estey, Matthew, Hunt, Christopher, McCurry, Katherine, Graham, David P.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Wiley Periodicals Inc 01.07.2022
Subjects
Clinical significance
cognitive behavior therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Humans
Military Personnel - psychology
Post traumatic stress disorder
psychotherapy
Psychotherapy, Group
PTSD
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology
trauma
Treatment Outcome
Veterans
Veterans - psychology
PTSD
trauma
psychotherapy
Veterans
cognitive behavior therapy
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Summary:Background Treatment dropout has been problematic with evidence‐based treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), including cognitive processing therapy (CPT). This study sought to evaluate whether CPT group contributed to symptom improvement among treatment completers and non‐completers. Methods Sixty‐one Iraq and Afghanistan combat Veterans self‐selected CPT group or treatment as usual (TAU) forming a convenience sample. Defining treatment completion as attending at least nine sessions: 18 completed treatment, 20 dropped‐out (DOs); 20 completed TAU, 3 lost to TAU follow‐up. Results Multiple Regression revealed significant pre−post‐treatment improvement, the Clinician‐Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS‐IV, F(5, 40.1) = 2.53, p = 0.0436). Reviewing DOs' last available PTSD Checklist‐Military Version scores before leaving treatment, six achieved clinically significant improvement of >10 points; seven a clinically reliable change of 5−10 points. Conclusion These findings highlight that CPT group may be effective at reducing trauma‐related symptoms among treatment completers and dropouts and point to the utility of a clinical definition of good treatment end‐state.
Bibliography:Portions of this article were previously presented as a poster session at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, November 2013.
Brooks King‐Casas, Ph.D., and Pearl H. Chiu, Ph.D. were both co‐equal second authors of the paper. They were both project conceptualizers who were key in the project's development, implementation, and oversite. Dr. Graham served as senior author.
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ISSN:0021-9762
1097-4679
DOI:10.1002/jclp.23307