Danielle A. C. Oprel

Purpose: Dysfunctional threat appraisal plays a key role in both the development and treatment of PTSD. It is unclear how these appraisals can best be measured. This study aimed to explore the specific negative outcome predictions held by patients with PTSD and to develop and validate the Threat Appraisal in PTSD Scale (TAPS). Methods: We used data from a non-clinical (N = 309) and clinical sample (N = 125) to assess the psychometric properties of the TAPS. Results: The TAPS had excellent internal consistency and test-retest reliability, and convergent and discriminative validity were adequate. The TAPS showed to be sensitive to change following treatment. The TAPS demonstrated incremental validity beyond general cognitions in predicting PTSD symptoms in the combined sample, but not in the patient sample. An exploratory factor analysis suggested three factors: ‘losing control’, ‘externalizing reactions’, and ‘physical reactions’, and patients seemed most concerned about outcomes related to ‘losing control’. Conclusions: These findings imply that the TAPS could be clinically beneficial, enabling patients and therapists to recognize dysfunctional expectancies and tailor therapeutic interventions accordingly.

Working alliance is considered an important determinant of outcome of psychotherapy. Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following childhood abuse (CA-PTSD) may have challenges in building interpersonal relationships, including working alliance. Phase-based treatment provides an opportunity to strengthen alliance prior to trauma-focused treatment. This study aimed to compare the development of working alliance among patients with CA-PTSD in three variants of prolonged exposure (PE) therapy: standard PE, intensive PE (iPE), and skill training in affective and interpersonal regulation + prolonged exposure (STAIR + PE). We also examined the effect of alliance on treatment outcome and dropout. Self-reported PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth edition (Blevins et al., 2015) and patient-rated Working Alliance Inventory (Tracey & Kokotovic, 1989) were assessed in a clinical trial. We analyzed data from 138 adult patients (76.1% female; 42% non-Western). Analyses were performed using mixed-effects models. Patients established a satisfactory alliance early in treatment, which increased over time. For PE and STAIR + PE, a larger decrease in PTSD symptom severity was related to a higher alliance in the subsequent session, but not the other way around. In STAIR + PE, a higher alliance in Phase 1 was related to lower PTSD symptoms in Phase 2. In all conditions, a higher initial working alliance was related to a lower chance of treatment dropout. In the treatment of CA-PTSD, all three variants of prolonged exposure foster positive development of the working alliance. Across conditions, working alliance did not precede symptom decline. Therapists should strive for a strong alliance at the beginning of treatment as this reduces the likelihood of dropout. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Recent studies indicated that Prolonged Exposure (PE) is safe and effective for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It is unclear whether PE also leads to a reduction in comorbid diagnoses. Data from a large randomized controlled trial (N = 149) on the effects of three variants of PE for PTSD were used. We examined the treatment effects on co-morbid diagnoses of depressive, anxiety, obsessive compulsive, substance abuse, psychotic, eating and personality disorders in a sample of patients with PTSD related to childhood abuse. Outcomes were assessed with clinical interviews at baseline, post-treatment and at 6- and 12-month follow-up. All variants of PE led to a decrease from baseline to post-treatment in diagnoses of depressive, anxiety, substance use and personality disorders. Improvements were sustained during follow-up. We found an additional decrease in the number of patients that fulfilled the diagnostic criteria of a depressive disorder between 6- and 12-month follow-up. No significant changes were observed for the presence of OCD, psychotic and eating disorders. Findings suggest that it is effective to treat PTSD related to childhood abuse with trauma-focused treatments since our 14-to-16 weeks PE for PTSD resulted in reductions in comorbid diagnoses of depressive, anxiety, substance use and personality disorders.

Background: Differences in effectiveness among treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are typically small. Given the variation between patients in treatment response, personalization offers a new way to improve treatment outcomes. The aim of this study was to identify predictors of psychotherapy outcome in PTSD and to combine these into a personalized advantage index (PAI). Methods: We used data from a recent randomized controlled trial comparing prolonged exposure (PE; n = 48), intensified PE (iPE; n = 51), and skills training (STAIR), followed by PE (n = 50) in 149 patients with childhood-abuse-related PTSD (CA-PTSD). Outcome measures were clinician-assessed and self-reported PTSD symptoms. Predictors were identified in the exposure therapies (PE and iPE) and STAIR+PE separately using random forests and subsequent bootstrap procedures. Next, these predictors were used to calculate PAI and to retrospectively determine optimal and suboptimal treatment in a leave-one-out cross-validation approach. Results: More depressive symptoms, less social support, more axis-1 diagnoses, and higher severity of childhood sexual abuse were predictors of worse treatment outcomes in PE and iPE. More emotion regulation difficulties, lower general health status, and higher baseline PTSD symptoms were predictors of worse treatment outcomes in STAIR+PE. Randomization to optimal treatment based on these predictors resulted in more improvement than suboptimal treatment in clinician assessed (Cohens’ d = 0.55) and self-reported PTSD symptoms (Cohens’ d = 0.47). Conclusion: Personalization based on PAI is a promising tool to improve therapy outcomes in patients with CA-PTSD. Further studies are needed to replicate findings in prospective studies.

Background: It is unclear whether the evidence-based treatments for PTSD are as effective in patients with CA-PTSD. Objective: We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of three variants of prolonged exposure therapy. Method: We recruited adults with CA-PTSD. Participants were randomly assigned to Prolonged Exposure (PE; 16 sessions in 16 weeks), intensified Prolonged Exposure (iPE; 12 sessions in 4 weeks followed by 2 booster sessions) or a phase-based treatment, in which 8 sessions of PE were preceded by 8 sessions of Skills Training in Affective and Interpersonal Regulation (STAIR+PE; 16 sessions in 16 weeks). Assessments took place in week 0 (baseline), week 4, week 8, week 16 (post-treatment) and at a 6-and 12-month follow-up. The primary outcome was clinician-rated PTSD symptom severity. Results: We randomly assigned 149 patients to PE (48), iPE (51) or STAIR+PE (50). All treatments resulted in large improvements in clinician assessed and self-reported PTSD symptoms from baseline to 1-year follow-up (Cohen’s d > 1.6), with no significant differences among treatments. iPE led to faster initial symptom reduction than PE for self-report PTSD symptoms (t₁₃₅ = −2.85, p = .005, d = .49) but not clinician-assessed symptoms (t₁₃₅ = −1.65, p = .10) and faster initial symptom reduction than STAIR+PE for self-reported (t₁₃₅ = −4.11, p < .001, d = .71) and clinician-assessed symptoms (t₁₃₅ = −2.77, p = .006, Cohen’s d = .48) STAIR+PE did not result in significantly more improvement from baseline to 1-year follow-up on the secondary outcome emotion regulation, interpersonal problems and self-esteem compared to PE and iPE. Dropout rates did not differ significantly between conditions. Conclusions: Variants of exposure therapy are tolerated well and lead to large improvements in patients with CA-PTSD. Intensifying treatment may lead to faster improvement but not to overall better outcomes. The trial is registered at the clinical trial registry, number NCT03194113, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03194113 • Childhood abuse-related PTSD can be effectively treated with (variants of) exposure therapy. • STAIR+PE and intensified PE did not improve treatment outcomes compared to PE.• Intensified PE showed faster symptom improvement.