A new study has found that adults who were mistreated or abused as children and suffer from PTSD as a result of this may benefit from cognitive behavioral therapy. The study was carried out by a team of 15 therapists led by Danielle Oprel, a clinical psychologist, and Chris Hoeber, a PhD candidate and researcher. The researchers are hopeful about the perspective the study’s findings provide to individuals with serious PTSD symptoms.
Hoeber’s objective was to determine which form of prolonged exposure therapy was the most effective for this particular group. The study was comprised of 149 patients, most of whom had been suffering from PTSD symptoms for years. Hoeber studied three variants, which involved comparing the standard one to an intensive variant. The standard variant involved weekly consultations for PTSD with a therapist while the intensive one involved three consultations every week. In the third approach, patients were taught skills such as emotion regulation to help them cope better with the prolonged exposure treatment.
Hoeber discovered that while all the forms of therapy worked well, patients who underwent intensive therapy were symptom free sooner. About one-half of the patients presented with no symptoms of PTSD after treatment, with the researchers noting a clear improvement in another quarter and no improvement in the remaining quarter.
Prolonged exposure therapy is a behavioral therapy method that is effective in treating post-traumatic stress disorder. It involves a patient recounting a traumatic memory vividly, under the supervision of a therapist. The therapist asks questions about the sounds, sights and smells connected to the experience as the patient recounts the memory in present tense, in the first person.
This technique allows individuals to learn that they are safe and can cope with those memories without having to block or avoid them. The therapist can also give the patient assignments to help control avoidant behavior.
Despite being effective, prolonged exposure therapy is not used to treat PTSD in individuals who were mistreated or abused as children. In cases like this, the treatment used primarily deals with the additional symptoms.
Hoeber explained that most practitioners believed that people who have been abused are so vulnerable that they couldn’t cope with reliving the experiences and that this technique would trigger a crisis or increase the trauma, which wasn’t always the case.
The researchers are focused on improving their treatment in order to help the group that saw no improvement in their symptoms. In the report, Hoeber stated that it was crucial that therapists use the prolonged exposure therapy to provide proper treatment to such patients.
Many companies, including Mydecine Innovations Group Inc. (NEO: MYCO) (OTC: MYCOF), are hard at work looking to develop new medications to combat various mental health conditions, such as PTSD.
NOTE TO INVESTORS: The latest news and updates relating to Mydecine Innovations Group Inc. (NEO: MYCO) (OTC: MYCOF) are available in the company’s newsroom at https://ibn.fm/MYCOF
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