Research round-up

Abstract

In their randomised trial, researchers for the STRONG STAR Consortium assessed treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). US military personnel who had PTSD were allocated to receive either 10 sessions of prolonged exposure therapy over 2 weeks (n=110) or 8 weeks (n=109), 8 weeks (10 sessions) of present-centred therapy (n=107), or 4 weeks of minimal-contact control (n=40). Mean symptom score on the PTSD Symptom Scale-Interview (PSS-I) at 2 weeks post-treatment decreased by a greater margin in those allocated to 2 weeks of prolonged exposure therapy than in minimal-contact controls (difference in decrease 3·70, 95% CI 0·72–6·68, p=0·02). At the 2 week and 12 week follow-up after treatment, researchers noted that receiving 10 sessions of prolonged exposure therapy over 2 weeks was non-inferior to receiving them over 8 weeks. After 8 weeks of treatment, there were no significant differences in PSS-I score between the prolonged exposure and present-centred therapy groups.