Analysis of Effective Treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

This report analyzes three of the most effective treatments for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It begins with an introduction to PTSD, its prevalence, and the impact of traumatic events. The literature review explores various treatments recommended by health organizations, including medications and psychotherapy, with an emphasis on psychological therapies. The report then delves into the efficacy of three key treatments: exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Exposure therapy involves confronting traumatic memories, while CBT focuses on modifying negative thought patterns and behaviors. EMDR utilizes eye movements to process traumatic experiences. The methodology employs a positivism research philosophy and a descriptive research design, utilizing secondary data from peer-reviewed journals, online platforms, and governmental surveys to identify the most effective treatments. The findings highlight the importance of exposure therapy, CBT, and EMDR in managing PTSD symptoms. The report also acknowledges gaps in the literature and emphasizes the need for a comprehensive understanding of treatment effectiveness specifically for PTSD.

Running head: THREE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR PTSD
THREE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR PTSD
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THREE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR PTSD
Abstract
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a kind of the disorder that is generally caused by distressful
events, stress and frightening events. It is a disorder that occurs in an individual who has
experienced something scary, shocking or dangerous. In the United States, the overall percentage
of persons suffering from PTSD was 5% and those with severe impairment made up 1.5% of the
total diagnosed. The research study highlighted three of the most effective treatment which are
the exposure theory, the cognitive behavioral theory, the eye movement desensitization and
reprocessing theory and the group theory.

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Table of Contents
Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
Literature Review............................................................................................................................3
Treatments and Therapies recommended by various health organizations.................................4
Types of psychological therapies/treatments...........................................................................4
Gap in the literature.....................................................................................................................7
Methods...........................................................................................................................................7
Discussion......................................................................................................................................10
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10
References:....................................................................................................................................12

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THREE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR PTSD
Introduction
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a disorder that occurs in an individual who
has experienced something scary, shocking or dangerous. Although the feeling of shock and
fear is natural during or after any traumatic event, some people continue to experience these
for long as opposed to others (Foa & McLean, 2016). Those with PTSD might feel stressed
or scared even in situations that are not scary or dangerous. The disorder is prevalent in both
male and female with children also being diagnosed with it. In the United States, a look at the
2001 to 2003 statistics given in the National Institute of Mental Health reveals that 8%
female ad 2.3% male were diagnosed with PTSD. The overall percentage was 5% and those
with severe impairment made up 1.5% of the total diagnosed (Nimh.nih.gov, 2019). This
shows that the prevalence of the disorder in the US was quite high. As of now, no
epidemiological study has been conducted to check the prevalence of PTSD amongst
children and adolescents. However, it has been found in some research that children suffer
from high-risk PTSD due to some traumatic events such as natural disasters and abuse
amongst others.
In this assignment, the three most effective treatments for PTSD shall be discussed.
Although there are numerous treatments and therapies for treating the disorder, only a few
have been largely effective. In this assignment, the three most effective PTSD treatments will
be provided after proper review and examination of the literature.
Research question: What are the three most effective effective treatments for patients with a
diagnosis of PTSD?
Literature Review

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Treatments and Therapies recommended by various health organizations
Health organizations, both private and government based in the US and other nations
have presented various therapies and treatments for PTSD. The National Institute of Mental
Health of the US has provided numerous ways to treat the PTSD patients (Nimh.nih.gov,
2019). These include medications and psychotherapy. While medications such as
antidepressants are mostly prescribed for patients with PTSD, these alone could not
completely treat PTSD. This is the reason why most psychiatrists and doctors suggest
psychotherapy along with medication. Psychotherapy, also known as “talk therapy”, refers to
conversing with a patient to treat the disorder (Nimh.nih.gov, 2019).. In case of PTSD, the
talk therapy lasts for around six to twelve weeks although the time could stretch longer as
well.
The National Health Services (NHS) of the United Kingdom also provides various therapies
for the treatment of PTSD including the “watchful waiting” treatment (Nhs.uk, 2019).
Similar to the NIMH, NHS also emphasizes on the psychological therapies more than it does
on medication.
Types of psychological therapies/treatments
Psychologists, psychiatrists and doctors around the globe have proposed various types of
psychosocial treatment. The reason is the effectiveness of the psychosocial therapies in
treating all forms of mental disorders including PTSD. Numerous studies have demonstrated
that the psychological treatments or therapies are the most effective when it comes to treating
mental disorders. In one of such studies conducted by Schnyder et al. (2015), it was revealed
that psychological treatments are most effective in case of patients with depressive

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symptoms. The authors further found that the Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the
most used and most effective psychotherapy for people with clinical depression. Although
the study was undertaken for patients with clinical depression, it could be associated with
PTSD because both are mental disorders. In the following sections, the different types of
psychotherapies shall be explained in details.
Exposure therapy:
In this therapy, the patients suffering from PTSD are exposed to similar traumatic events
that they have been avoiding after the actual event took place and they went into trauma. In
simpler terms, the treatment helps people confront their fear and control it (Nimh.nih.gov,
2019). The therapists do not straightaway expose the patient to traumatic events but
gradually. While commenting on the effectiveness of exposure therapy, Meyer et al. (2014)
state that although the prolonged exposure (PE) treatment is one of the most effective
treatments for PTSD yet many clinicians underutilize it. The authors found that therapists
who have some kind of reservations regarding the therapy tend to exclude patients based on
some characteristics. This leads to those patients receiving less effective treatments.
Markowitz et al. (2015) on the other hand argue that the exposure therapy is not completely
reliable because in every case the patient might not respond the same way. The authors found
that exposure therapy is sometimes very cruel for the patients because it includes making the
patients go through the suffering again (Nimh.nih.gov, 2019). They found that a softer form
of psychotherapy could be used where patients are allowed to focus on present “interpersonal
encounters rather than the past trauma”. In contrast to this, Foa and McLean (2016) are of the
view that the exposure theory in any of its forms is quite efficient in treating PTSD.
According to the authors, PE significantly reduces the severity of PTSD.

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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy:
Known also as CBT, this therapy involves the use of patient’s cognition and behavior
simultaneously to help her or him recover from PTSD. In this treatment, the therapist helps
the patient in making sense of her or his bad memories. It happens sometimes that people
remember the traumatic event in a different way than it had actually happened. They might
feel shame or guilty about some incidences that was actually not their fault. The therapist
assists the patient with PTSD to view the event from a different perspective. The CBTs have
been largely accepted as one of the best treatments for PTSD as it helps the patients think
about the positive aspects and not blame themselves. Akbarian et al. (2017) found in their
study that the CBT reduces the symptoms of PTSD over time. However, the most significant
finding of their study was that the CBT helped reduced PTSD symptoms in the experimental
condition and not in the control condition. The conclusion they drew from this was that CBT
develops the treatment of PTSD. Lenz and Hollenbaugh (2015) however, argue that while
CBT might be an effective treatment for most mental disorders, it falls short of having the
same effectiveness when it comes to treating PTSD. They conducted studies on trauma-
focused CBT (TF-CBT) on reducing the PTSD and depression symptoms and found that
while CBT reduces depression, it has an average influence on PTSD.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR):
This relatively new therapy attempts to reduce PTSD symptoms in patients by
undertaking numerous eye exercises. In this therapy, the therapist asks the patient to make
eye movements from side to side while remembering the traumatic event. Apart from that,
the therapist also undertakes other eye activities that help reduce the symptom. Moreno-

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Alcázar et al. (2017), claim that the EMDR therapy could become an effective treatment for
PTSD especially in young individuals. According to the authors, the EMDR therapy is best
suited for reducing the PTSD symptoms in children and adolescents. Many other studies have
revealed that the EMDR therapy is effective in reducing the symptoms of PTSD (Köhler et
al., 2017, Chen et al., 2018).
Group therapy:
This therapy is largely helpful in making the PTSD patients validate their condition by
meeting and conversing with others who have similar experiences to share. In group therapy,
patients with PTSD meet and share their experiences with others. In such groups, the patient
feels that she or he is not alone in her or his struggle. Schwartze et al. (2017) found
significant positive effects of group psychotherapy on patients with PTSD especially in
adults.
Gap in the literature
In the above review of literature, it has been found that several studies have been
conducted to find the efficacies of the different treatments for PTSD. However, the major gap
that has been revealed in the review is that none of the studies provided a comprehensive and
separate understanding of the effectiveness of different treatments solely for PTSD.
Therefore, the purpose of the present research will be to make an attempt in finding
treatments that are the most effective for PTSD treatment.
Methods

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The methodology for the conduction of this particular study included the positivism research
philosophy. This is because the positivism approach helped towards the development of the
in depth analysis of this particular study related to the treatments for PTSD. The study was
conducted using a descriptive or analytical research design because this design helped in
understanding and the effective evaluation of the study in a descriptive way. The analytical
research design has been helpful for this particular study since it helped the researcher to gain
a detailed idea regarding the existing practices and the methods related to the effective
treatments for PTSD. The sampling techniques that has been used for this research includes
both the probability and the non-probability sampling techniques. For this particular research
study, secondary data has been considered for the analysis and the interpretation of the
effective treatments and the methods for PTSD. The research considered peer reviewed
journals, findings from primary data resources, data from the available online platform and
the printed forms for the analysis of the treatment methods for the chronic disease.
Furthermore the data from the inpatient units of general hospitals and the governmental
survey’s has furthermore been considered for deducing the effective methods for the post-
traumatic stress disorder among the patients.
Results
From the data that has been collected for the analysis of the effective treatment methods
for the PTSD, the research study revealed the three most essential methods or the factors that
includes the exposure therapy, the cognitive behavioral therapy and the eye movement
desensitization and reprocessing theory.

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The exposure therapy is the basic or fundamental set of treatments approaches that are
used for the reduction of the pathological fear and the related emotions like the anxiety
disorders, stress. As per the analysis by Foa and McLean (2016), the context of the post-
traumatic stress disorder was not initially recognized and there was very little knowledge
regarding the treatment of the disorder. The authors in their research article highlighted the
efficacy of the exposure therapy for the conditions of the anxiety. The PTSD patients was
being viewed as those who are suffering from extensive phobias and traumas. As suggested
in the article, the two principal components of the prolonged exposure theory are the design
for the helping the patients overcome the avoidance for the safe objects, situations and
another process that is designed for helping n the procedure of the digesting traumatic events.
As per the explanation by Foa and McLean (2016), there has been a large sum of research
that has been accumulating over the efficacy and the effectiveness of the cognitive behavioral
therapy for the disorders related to the anxiety, posttraumatic and obsessive compulsive
disorders, the panic disorders and the specific phobia. The article highlighted the most
effective methods for the treatment of the anxiety disorders for the summarization and the
discussion of the empirical researched regarding the use and the benefits of the cognitive
behavioral therapy for the patients suffering from post traumatic disorder. The research
furthermore highlights the research of the cognitive behavioral therapy towards the anxiety
disorders for supporting the effectiveness of the methods which includes the commonalities
that are underlying the treatments in the area of the clinical development (Foa & McLea,
2016). The authors furthermore explained the instances of the Trans diagnostic cognitive
behavioral therapy that the post-traumatic stress disorder are frequently comorbidity with the
factors like depression, and the in the recognition of some of the overlapping syndrome.

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THREE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR PTSD
As per the analysis of Jeffries and Davis (2013), the eye movement desensitization and
reprocessing is the new and the nontraditional category of psychotherapy for the treatment of
the post-traumatic stress disorder. Lasting up to 90 minutes, the process of the EMDR
utilized the patient’s rhythmic eye movements, talking therapy and rapid movement for
dampening the power of the emotionally charged memories of the patient’s past events that
has been traumatic.
Discussion
From the results of the findings from the secondary resources of the survey, some of
the basic discussion that can be initiated are as follows. The results of the findings
demonstrated the effectiveness and the efficacy of the cognitive development method, the
exposure theory and the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing method (Kaczkurkin
& Foa, 2015). All of these methods represents the most frequently used and implemented
techniques for dealing with the stress disorder. It is has been furthermore evident from the
discussion that the treatments and the therapy for the PTSD focuses over the cognitive nature
or the beliefs regarding the causes and the consequences that are generally related to the
trauma (Foa & McLean, 2016). The overlapping techniques among the therapies and the
effective procedures might differ towards the necessarily superior outcomes.
Conclusion
Thus it can be concluded from the above research study that Psychologists,
psychiatrists and doctors around the globe have proposed various types of psychosocial
treatment. Those with PTSD tend to feel stressed or scared even in situations that are not
scary or dangerous. The disorder is prevalent in both male and female with children also

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THREE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR PTSD
being diagnosed with it. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a kind of the disorder that is
generally caused by distressful events, stress and frightening events. Apart from all the other
methods and the process for effective treatment of this disorder, the research study
highlighted three of the most effective treatment which are the exposure theory, the cognitive
behavioral theory, the eye movement desensitization and reprocessing theory and the group
theory.

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References:
Akbarian, F., Bajoghli, H., Haghighi, M., Kalak, N., Holsboer-Trachsler, E., & Brand, S.
(2015). The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy with respect to psychological
symptoms and recovering autobiographical memory in patients suffering from post-
traumatic stress disorder. Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 11, 395.
Chen, R., Gillespie, A., Zhao, Y., Xi, Y., Ren, Y., & McLean, L. (2018). The efficacy of eye
movement desensitization and reprocessing in children and adults who have
experienced complex childhood trauma: A systematic review of randomized
controlled trials. Frontiers in psychology, 9, 534.
Foa, E. B., & McLean, C. P. (2016). The efficacy of exposure therapy for anxiety-related
disorders and its underlying mechanisms: The case of OCD and PTSD. Annual
review of clinical psychology, 12, 1-28.
Foa, E. B., & McLean, C. P. (2016). The efficacy of exposure therapy for anxiety-related
disorders and its underlying mechanisms: The case of OCD and PTSD. Annual
review of clinical psychology, 12, 1-28.
Jeffries, F. W., & Davis, P. (2013). What is the role of eye movements in eye movement
desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)?
A review. Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy, 41(3), 290-300.
Kaczkurkin, A. N., & Foa, E. B. (2015). Cognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders:
an update on the empirical evidence. Dialogues in clinical neuroscience, 17(3), 337.

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THREE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENTS FOR PTSD
Köhler, K., Eggert, P., Lorenz, S., Herr, K., Willmund, G., Zimmermann, P., & Alliger-Horn,
C. (2017). Effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing in
German Armed Forces Soldiers With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Under Routine
Inpatient Care Conditions. Military medicine, 182(5), e1672.
Lenz, A. S., & Hollenbaugh, K. M. (2015). Meta-analysis of trauma-focused cognitive
behavioral therapy for treating PTSD and co-occurring depression among children
and adolescents. Counseling Outcome Research and Evaluation, 6(1), 18-32.
Markowitz, J. C., Petkova, E., Neria, Y., Van Meter, P. E., Zhao, Y., Hembree, E., ... &
Marshall, R. D. (2015). Is exposure necessary? A randomized clinical trial of
interpersonal psychotherapy for PTSD. American Journal of Psychiatry, 172(5), 430-
440.
Meyer, J. M., Farrell, N. R., Kemp, J. J., Blakey, S. M., & Deacon, B. J. (2014). Why do
clinicians exclude anxious clients from exposure therapy?. Behaviour research and
therapy, 54, 49-53.
Moreno-Alcázar, A., Treen, D., Valiente-Gómez, A., Sio-Eroles, A., Pérez, V., Amann, B.
L., & Radua, J. (2017). Efficacy of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in
children and adolescent with post-traumatic stress disorder: a meta-analysis of
randomized controlled trials. Frontiers in psychology, 8, 1750.
Nhs.uk. (2019). Treatment. Retrieved from https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/post-traumatic-
stress-disorder-ptsd/treatment/

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NIMH » Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. (2019). Retrieved from
https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/
index.shtml#part_145375
Nimh.nih.gov. (2019). NIMH » Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Retrieved from
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Schnyder, U., Ehlers, A., Elbert, T., Foa, E. B., Gersons, B. P., Resick, P. A., ... & Cloitre,
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Schwartze, D., Barkowski, S., Strauss, B., Knaevelsrud, C., & Rosendahl, J. (2017). Efficacy
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