ArticleJournal of consulting and clinical psychology2014
Depression sudden gains and transient depression spikes during treatment for PTSD.
Article in Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Changes in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depressive symptoms over the course of prolonged exposure.Journal of consulting and clinical psychology · 2018Trial
- Psychotherapy for PTSD - a scoping review of how change during treatment has been studied.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- A scoping review on arts-based interventions for the mental health of refugee and asylum-seeking children and youth.Perspectives in public health · 2025Article
- Ketamine-enhanced prolonged exposure therapy in veterans with PTSD: A randomized controlled trial protocol.Contemporary clinical trials · 2024Article
- Divergent experiences of U.S. veterans who did and did not complete trauma-focused therapies for PTSD: A national qualitative study of treatment dropout.Behaviour research and therapy · 2022Article
- Article
- The Continuum Between Temperament and Mental Illness as Dynamical Phases and Transitions.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2020Review
- Depression Suppresses Treatment Response for Traumatic Loss-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Active Duty Military Personnel.Journal of traumatic stress · 2019Article
- Comorbid mood and anxiety disorders and severity of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in treatment-seeking veterans.Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy · 2019Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveWe know little about how change unfolds in depression symptoms during posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment or how patient characteristics predict depression symptom change. This study examined critical transition points in depression symptoms during PTSD treatment, namely, depression sudden gains, which are rapid symptom improvements and transient depression spikes, which are transient depression worsenings. Social support, one of the strongest predictors of PTSD development, was examined as a predictor of depression symptom discontinuities.
methodAt pretreatment, 200 participants (76.6% female; 64.9% Caucasian; age M = 37.1, SD = 11.3 years) completed measures of PTSD severity (PTSD Symptom Scale-Self-Report), depression severity (Beck Depression Inventory), general social support (Inventory of Socially Supportive Behaviors; Social Support Questionnaire), and trauma-related social support (Social Reactions Questionnaire). During 10 weeks of prolonged exposure (PE) or sertraline, depression was assessed weekly.
resultsOverall, 18.0% of participants experienced a depression sudden gain, and 22.5% experienced a transient depression spike. The presence of a depression sudden gain predicted better treatment outcome, β = -4.82, SE = 1.17, p = .001, 95% CI [-6.79, -2.90]. Higher perceptions of negative trauma-related reactions, albeit modestly, were associated with experiencing a transient depression spike (r = .18, p = .01). There were no differences in rates of depression sudden gains or transient depression spikes between treatments.
conclusionsEncouragingly, rapid improvements in depression symptoms are beneficial for PTSD treatment outcome, but transient spikes in depressive symptoms do not strongly influence outcome. Understanding symptom discontinuities may help us to personalize current PTSD treatment options.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.