Prolonged Exposure Works in Veterans with PTSD

These researchers aimed to determine whether prolonged exposure (PE), the most evidence-based treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), could be implemented effectively on a large scale for military veterans. The 804 participating clinicians, from Veterans Affairs medical facilities throughout the U.S., underwent a 4-day workshop and then treated 1931 veterans of the Vietnam and Gulf wars with a primary diagnosis of PTSD (mean age, 47); treatment implementation occurred with telephone supervision. PE consisted of imaginal and in vivo exposure to traumatic stimuli in a safe setting, education, and breathing retraining in an average of 9 sessions.

Mean PTSD symptom scores decreased significantly to a clinically important degree (eff…