Exposure Treatment for PTSD

In the treatment guidelines developed by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, exposure therapy was named as the best therapy for PTSD. Exposure therapy has consistently been shown to be more effective than no treatment controls. It also has been shown superior to supportive counseling for PTSD symptoms. Studies have revealed that It has been shown to be at least equally effective as cognitive therapy, stress inoculation training, cognitive processing therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing in many well-controlled investigations. In several studies, advantages of exposure therapy over these other techniques emerged. Exposure therapy has not been compared to medications in a controlled study. However, one study did find that exposure therapy augmented treatment with medication, especially for weaker medication responders. Most studies have found that gains are maintained and sometimes increase at follow-up, resulting in an average of 60 to 80% reduction in PTSD symptom severity.