Shikha Verma, MD, FAPA Medical Director, Northern California Evolve Treatment Centers Danville, CaliforniaAssistant Professor Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Health Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science North Chicago, Illinois
Disclosures The authors report no financial relationships with any companies whose products are mentioned in this article, or with manufacturers of competing products.
According to the American Psychological Association, several CBT-based psychotherapies are recommended for treating PTSD26:
Trauma-focused–CBTincludes psychoeducation, trauma narrative, processing, exposure, and relaxation skills training. It consists ofapproximately 12 to 16 sessions and incorporates elements of family therapy.
Cognitive processing therapy (CPT)focuseson helping patients develop adaptive cognitive domains about the self, the people around them, and the world. CPT therapists assist in information processing by accessing the traumatic memory and trying to eliminate emotions tied to it.25,27CPT consists of 12 to 16 structured individual, group, or combined sessions.
Prolonged exposure (PE) targets fear-related emotions and works on the principles of habituation to extinguish trauma and fear response to the trigger. This increases self-reliance and competence and decreases the generalization of anxiety to innocuous triggers. PE typically consists of 9 to 12 sessions. PE alone or in combination with cognitive restructuring is successful in treating patients with PTSD, but cognitive restructuring has limited utility in young children.25,27
Cognitive exposure can be individual or group therapy delivered over 3 months, where negative self-evaluation and traumatic memories are challenged with the goal of interrupting maladaptive behaviors and thoughts.27
