Predicting treatment outcome on three measures for post-traumatic stress disorder

Karatzias, Athanasios; Power, Kevin; McGoldrick, Theresa; Brown, Keith; Buchanan, Robin; Sharp, Donald; Swanson, Vivien

Abstract

The aim of the present study was to investigate predictors of treatment outcome for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) after treatment completion and at 15-months follow-up (n = 48), in a trial of Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) versus Imaginal Exposure and Cognitive Restructuring (E+CR). Factors associated with treatment outcome were investigated using regression analyses with the mean change scores in three assessor and self-rated PTSD symptomatology measures, including the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), the Impact of Events Scale (IES) and the PTSD Symptom Checklist (PCL) from pre- to post-treatment and pre-treatment to follow-up as the dependent variables and demographics, trauma, clinical and personality measures as independent variables. Irrespective to outcome measures and assessment points it was found that four variables were able to predict significantly treatment outcome. These included baseline PTSD symptomatology, number of sessions, gender and therapy type. Overall, our results showed that it is difficult to use pre-treatment variables as a powerful and reliable tool for predicting treatment

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 6, 2006
• Online Publication Date: Aug 16, 2006
• Publication Date: 2007-02
• Deposit Date: Feb 1, 2008
• Journal: European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience
• Print ISSN: 0940-1334
• Electronic ISSN: 1433-8491
• Publisher: BMC
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 257
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 40-46
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-006-0682-2
• Keywords: Pharmacology (medical); Biological Psychiatry; Psychiatry and Mental health; General Medicine
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/2247
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00406-006-0682-2