'Prolonged Exposure' Therapy Best for Female Vets With PTSD

Study found it was more effective than commonly used treatment.

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Tuesday, February 27, 2007; 12:00 AM

Copyright © 2007 ScoutNews, LLC. All rights reserved.

TUESDAY, Feb 27 (HealthDay News) -- A type of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) therapy that involves recounting a traumatic event until emotions diminish is more effective for female military veterans than a more commonly used treatment is, new research shows.

"The study authors have shown that [prolonged] exposure therapy, which has been shown to be efficacious for other patients with PTSD, seems to be effective for this population -- women veterans returning mainly from Iraq and Afghanistan," said Jane Leserman, a medical sociologist and professor in the department of psychiatry at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. "Because it seems to be efficacious for this group, it would make sense that this kind of treatment be available to them."

PTSD is an anxiety disorder involving nightmares, flashbacks and panic attacks linked to event "triggers" that develop after exposure to combat or other disturbing events, including 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.

Women who have served in the military have a higher level of PTSD than women in the general population do. No studies, however, have evaluated treatments among these women.

Some 9.7 percent of U.S. women in general experience PTSD, compared with 3.6 percent of men.

According to the study, guidelines for treating PTSD recommend cognitive behavioral therapy such as the type tested in this study, along with antidepressants.

Most physicians, however, do not regularly use cognitive behavioral therapy, the authors stated. The "present-centered" approach, by contrast, is widely used by the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). That type of therapy involves discussing the difficulties in daily life that often follow a traumatic experience.

"The majority of therapists nationally and internationally don't have training in prolonged exposure therapy, so they don't use it widely, but it is the type of therapy recommended in practice guidelines," said study lead researcher Paula Schnurr, deputy executive director of the VA National Center for PTSD in White River Junction, Vt.