A comparison of exposure therapy, stress inoculation training, and their combination for reducing posttraumatic stress disorder in female assault victims.

TLDR

Ninety‑six female assault victims with chronic PTSD were randomized to prolonged exposure, stress inoculation training, combined treatment, or wait‑list control, receiving nine twice‑weekly individual sessions and assessed before treatment, after treatment, and at 3, 6, and 12‑month follow‑ups. All three active treatments reduced PTSD and depression relative to wait‑list, with no differences among them, but in intent‑to‑treat analyses prolonged exposure outperformed the other two on post‑treatment anxiety, global social adjustment, and had larger effect sizes for PTSD, depression, and anxiety, while stress inoculation training and combined treatment did not differ.

Abstract

Ninety-six female assault victims with chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were randomly assigned to 4 treatment conditions: prolonged exposure (PE), stress inoculation training (SIT), combined treatment (PE-SIT), or wait-list control (WL). Treatment consisted of 9 twice-weekly, individual sessions. Independent evaluations were conducted at pretreatment; posttreatment; and 3-, 6-, and 12-month follow-ups. All 3 active treatments reduced severity of PTSD and depression compared with WL but did not differ significantly from each other, and these gains were maintained throughout the follow-up period. However, in the intent-to-treat sample, PE was superior to SIT and PE-SIT on posttreatment anxiety and global social adjustment at follow-up and had larger effect sizes on PTSD severity, depression, and anxiety. SIT and PE-SIT did not differ significantly from each other on any outcome measure.