The purpose of this study is to determine whether 60-minute sessions of prolonged exposure (PE) are as effective as the standard 90-minute session for treating posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Participants will include patients ages 18 or older with a current diagnosis of PTSD who are seeking treatment in our clinic. Patients who have current substance dependence, psychosis, and suicidal ideation with intent and plan may not be suitable for receiving PE and may be offered another treatment or referred to a different treatment center. Participants will be randomized to receive either the 90- minute or 60-minute PE session. A blind evaluator will assess for pre-treatment, post-treatment, and follow-up levels of symptom severity using the PTSD Symptoms Scale Interview (PSS-I). Participants will attend weekly treatment sessions with any of our faculty members and will complete self-report measures at every session (see below).
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Enrollment
160
Prolonged exposure therapy (PE), a specific exposure therapy program for PTSD is a highly effective treatment for PTSD. The key components of PE are imaginal exposure to the traumatic event and processing it (revisiting of the traumatic memory in imagination) followed by processing of the revisiting experience, and in vivo exposure to avoided trauma-related situations and objects.
Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Change in PTSD Symptom Scale, Interview Version (PSS-I; Foa, Riggs, Dancu, & Rothbaum, 1993; Powers, Gillihan, Rosenfield, Jerud & Foa, 2012)
The PSS-I will be administered on 4 separate occasions We will measure the change in PSS-I scores from pre-treatment to post-treatment, 3 month follow-up, and 6 month follow-up. The PSS-I is a 20-minute, 17-item clinical interview that evaluates DSM-IV PTSD symptoms on a frequency/severity scale. The interview yields a full-scale score and subscales for each of the three PTSD symptom clusters. Psychometric studies revealed internal reliability of .91 for the full scale, and .78, .80, and .82 for the reexperiencing, avoidance and arousal clusters (Foa \& Tolin, 2000).
Time frame: Pre-treatment through 6 month follow-up
Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS; Foa et al., 1997)
The PDS will be administered at every other treatment session and at post-treatment, 3 month follow-up, and 6 month follow-up. The measure will be used to closely monitor treatment progress and help assess severity of symptoms. The PDS is a 17-item self-report measure that provides total and subscale severity scores and categorical classification of PTSD. The PDS demonstrated high internal consistency (.92 total, .78 re-experiencing, .84 avoidance, and .84 hyperarousal). Test-retest reliability is good, ranging from .74 to .85. High diagnostic agreement (82%) with the SCID-IV was noted: sensitivity was .89, and specificity, .75. The PDS is highly related to other measures of trauma related psychopathology. Participants will complete this measure at the beginning of every other treatment session.
Time frame: Pre-treatment through 6 months post-treatment
Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; Beck et al., 1961)
The BDI will be administered at every other treatment session and at post-treatment, 3 month follow-up, and 6 month follow-up. The measure will be used to closely monitor treatment progress and help assess severity of symptoms. The BDI is a 21-item scale assessing depression. The inventory's internal consistency ranges from .58 to .93, test-retest reliability ranges from .69 to .90. Participants will complete this report measure at the beginning every other treatment session.
Time frame: Pre-treatment through 6 month follow-up
Post-Traumatic Cognitions Inventory (PTCI; Foa et al., 1999)
The PTCI will be administered at every other treatment session and at post-treatment, 3 month follow-up, and 6 month follow-up. The measure will be used to closely monitor treatment progress and help assess severity of symptoms. This 36-item instrument assesses post-trauma cognitions across self, world, and self-blame and yields a total score. The scale has high internal consistency (.97, .88, .86, 97, respectively) and correlates well with PTSD severity, anxiety, and depression (.44 to .79). This 36-item instrument assesses dysfunctional post trauma cognitions theoretically thought to underlie the development of PTSD. Participants will complete this measure at the beginning of every treatment session.
Time frame: Pre-treatment through 6 month follow-up
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