Written exposure therapy may be effective for people with this psychiatric disorder.
- Written exposure therapy encourages patients to write down their thoughts and feelings after a trauma by hand and then talk about them with a therapist.
- After several sessions, only 12.5% of adults who followed this treatment stopped it before the end.
- 35.6% of people who did prolonged exposure therapy, which involves confronting traumatic memories, gave up.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) occurs after a traumatic event. They result in moral suffering and physical complications which profoundly alter personal, social and professional life. Currently, the treatment of these psychiatric disorders relies on psychotherapies, for example cognitive-behavioral therapy. “On the medicinal level, sedatives, antidepressants or anxiolytics are often prescribed in addition. (…) However, they have limited effectiveness, purely symptomatic”, noted Inserm.
Writing down your thoughts and feelings by hand after a trauma to “think better”
In a recent study, a team of American researchers revealed that written exposure therapy appeared to show promise in combating post-traumatic stress disorder. To reach this conclusion, they carried out a study published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry. As part of the work, the scientists recruited 178 veterans suffering from PTSD. “134 (75.3%) were male, and the average age was 44 years,” they clarified. The participants were divided into two groups.
Some have undergone written exposure therapy, which encourages patients to write down their thoughts and feelings after a trauma by hand and then talk about them with a therapist. They benefited from five to seven sessions of 45 to 60 minutes. “It’s a slower process, which allows patients to think better about what happened, who was there and what did they say, because they are writing about it,” explained Denise Sloan, psychologist and author of the research.
The other volunteers followed prolonged exposure therapy, which consists of confronting the patient with traumatic memories but also with stimuli evocative of their trauma. “They benefited from eight to fifteen 90-minute sessions. (…) Independent evaluations were carried out at the start of the study and 10, 20 and 30 weeks after the first treatment session.”
Written exposure therapy: patients were less likely to drop out of treatment
According to the results, participants in both treatments improved significantly, with large observed effect sizes. “The largest difference between treatments was observed at 10 weeks and was in favor of written exposure therapy.” According to the team, 12.5% of adults who participated in written exposure therapy stopped it before completion, while 35.6% of those in the prolonged exposure therapy group stopped taking the treatment.
“We have a lot of people who need treatment and we can’t meet that demand. We need to review what we’re doing and realize what’s needed to get positive results. Because most people cannot follow a treatment that extends over twelve to sixteen sessions”, concluded Denise Sloan.
