Psychotherapy for Vietnam-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

There are a wide range of psychotherapeutic treatments for Vietnam-related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. This paper reviews some of the more commonly used interventions which are the behavioral, psychodynamic, family, and group therapies. Commonalities among these diverse treatments are shown to involve reconfronting trauma stimuli and the attempt to reintegrate traumatic experiences into ongoing personality functioning. It is shown that there are virtually no methodologically sound, empirically based studies that compare two or more treatments within a given study. Experimentally controlled, comparative studies are needed to advance our knowledge of effective treatments of this disorder.