Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) often show intense levels of anxiety when exposed to stimuli associated with the precipitating traumatic incident. Recent advances in the treatment of PTSD have emphasized the importance of providing imaginal exposure to the traumatic memories. Assessment of treatment efficacy, therefore, can include psychophysiological, self-report (cognitive), and behavioral (motoric) measures obtained during the exposure treatments. To date, very little work has been conducted on the development and evaluation of behavioral indexes of intense anxiety during imaginal exposure to traumatic memories. The subject of the study was a 32-year-old Vietnam combat veteran with PTSD. Motoric behavior was assessed by independent observers during behavioral treatment sessions that consisted of separate components of imaginal exposure to nontraumatic (relaxing) and traumatic (flooding) cues. Gross motoric arousal during exposure dramatically decreased from preto posttreatment and at the 6-month follow-up. These changes were associatead with improvement in several areas of general life functioning and self-monitoring data, thus supporting the utility of imaginal flooding in the treatment of PTSD and the potential for this behavioral code in the assessment of intense anxiety disorders.