Occupational Therapy Interventions for PTSD in Inpatient Rehabilitation Settings

Running head: OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Occupational therapy
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
Research topic
Which occupational therapy interventions are most effective in improving symptoms
of posttraumatic stress disorders for adults in an inpatient rehabilitation setting?
Search strategy used
In order to elucidate the results of the research question, the researcher followed
systematic review approach. The systematic review was performed via analysis articles
published in peered reviewed journals. In order to find the appropriate articles which align
with the scope of the research questions, the researcher used key words like Occupational
therapy, post traumatic stress syndrome, post traumatic stress disorder, inpatient
rehabilitation, adults OR veterans. The main Boolean search indicators which were used for
the research include AND/ OR. According to Cash et al. (2013), use of the BOOLEAN
search indicators and appropriate key words help in fetching accurate research articles from
the database search. The main databases, which were used for the search of the literary
articles include PILOTS database, PsychINFO and CINAHL Plus. The period for the literary
article search, include last 10 years (2008 to 2018). The search of the literary articles via
keywords and then analysis of the title and the abstracts filtered out 5 articles which
coincided with the scope of the research questions and were selected for further analysis.
Summary of each article
The study conducted by Murphy et al. (2016) over UK veterans with military-related
PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) in a 6-week residential treatment with one-year follow
up showed that the occupational therapy interventions is capable of reducing both primary
and secondary outcomes of stress. Here the primary outcome was the severity of PTSD
symptoms and secondary outcomes include difficulty related to mental health (depression,

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OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
anger and anxiety) and problems with social, alcohol and occupational functioning. The study
mainly aligns with the level of evidence 3. It performed a longitudinal- observational study
with a cohort group of veterans with military-related PTSD. The level of evidence was found
to increase due to long-term exposure of the occupational therapy.
The study conducted by Alvarez et al. (2011) showed that the there is still space for
improvement as the substantial number of veterans still continue to experience symptoms of
the PSTD even after the treatment with cognitive processing therapy (CPT). However, the
results showed that CPT is significant in improving the symptoms of the PTSD in comparison
to the normal treatment offered apart from CPT. It falls under the level of evidence four due
to the effectiveness of the cognitive therapy in treating PTSD.
Blount et al. (2014) conducted a study, which showed that 10 days full outpatients’
session for 2 weeks over an active-duty military service member is successful in reducing
posttraumatic stress. This is because, at the end of the treatment, the patients’ no longer
satisfied the diagnostic criteria for PTSD. It falls under the level of evidence 2. Here the
effectiveness of outpatient therapy session is found to be effective in reducing the symptoms
associated with PTSD.
Speicher et al. (2014) conducted a study over 26 veterans with PTSD and history of
traumatic brain injury in order to examine the effectiveness of an 8-week residential
treatment program over the symptoms of PTSD. The PTSD checklist before and after the
treatment showed significant improvements in the occupational performance of the
participants. It also showed increase in satisfaction in daily life. These help in the overall
decrease in the severity of the depressive symptoms. The study highlighted the importance of
the in-house interdisciplinary treatment in order to bring change in the occupational areas and
reduction in the severity related to depression. Here the level of evidence increased as the