NCT01574118

Enhancing Exposure Therapy for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Enhancing Exposure Therapy for PTSD: An Investigation of Non-Pharmacological Augmentation Strategies

• Status: Terminated
• Phase: Phase 2
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 27 (actual)
• Sponsor: University of Texas at Austin · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

This study is investigating a new brief psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which, modifies an already proven psychotherapy for PTSD by adding two new components and modifying several others. The goal of the study is to determine whether this experimental treatment outperforms the well-established standard treatment.

Detailed description

This study is investigating a new brief psychotherapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) which, modifies an already proven psychotherapy for PTSD by adding two new components and modifying several others. The goal of the study is to determine whether this experimental treatment outperforms the well-established standard treatment. Individuals between the ages of 18-65 with chronic PTSD are randomly assigned to one of three psychotherapy conditions: (a) brief enhanced exposure therapy; (b) standard prolonged exposure therapy; and (c) delayed standard exposure therapy. All study participants undergo a phone and face-to-face screening assessment to determine study eligibility and baseline (pretreatment-Week 0) symptom severity. Upon completing treatment, participants undergo three additional assessment visits (Week 6, Week 10, and Week 22). During each of these outcome assessment visits, participants complete a structured clinical interview and a battery of computer-administered questionnaires.

Conditions

• Chronic Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Revisiting the Trauma memories	Patient engages in repeated revisiting of their trauma memory under the guidance of the therapist for about 40 minutes. During each revisiting trial the patient closes their eyes and verbally describes the trauma and the feeling and thoughts experienced during the trauma.
BEHAVIORAL	Processing the trauma memories	The patient and therapist discuss the patient's experience during the trauma revisiting with the goal of helping the patient gain alternative perspectives of the trauma.
BEHAVIORAL	Psychoeducation	Through patient handouts and didactic instruction, the patient learns about the common reactions to trauma and the rationale for exposure therapy.
BEHAVIORAL	Trauma Memory Retrieval Trial	Prior to the start of Imaginal Exposure, the patient is asked to recall a threatening element of their trauma memory for 1 minute. This is followed by a 30-minute rest-period prior to beginning imaginal exposure.
BEHAVIORAL	Exposure to video clips related to the patient's trauma	Patient is seated in front of a computer monitor and instructed to view a 30-min looped video clip that thematically resembles the patient's trauma.
BEHAVIORAL	Breathing retraining	Patient is seated comfortably in a chair and instructed to breathe slowly and deeply in a relaxed manner.
BEHAVIORAL	Exposure Homework	Therapist assists the patient in identifying trauma-related situations/activities that the patient is avoiding and encourages the patient to begin to confront these situations between sessions.
BEHAVIORAL	Compound extinction	The patient repeatedly confronts the truama-related media clip while simultaneously listening to their own trauma script through headphones.

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-04-01
• Primary completion: 2020-03-01
• Completion: 2020-03-01
• First posted: 2012-04-10
• Last updated: 2022-08-29

Locations

1 site across 1 country: United States