Trial reportDepression and anxiety2018
Long-term treatment gains of a brief exposure-based treatment for PTSD.
Trial report in Depression and anxiety, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 25 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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
25 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 42 citations in OpenAlex.
- The efficacy and acceptability of exposure therapy for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: a systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Long-term outcomes of psychological treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2021Pooled it
- The Role of the Therapeutic Alliance in Dropout in Cognitive Processing Therapy for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.Behavior therapy · 2026Trial
- Pragmatic Comparative Effectiveness of Primary Care Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial.JAMA psychiatry · 2025Trial
- Identifying predictors of long-term treatment outcomes using narratives from written exposure therapy and cognitive processing therapy for PTSD.Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy · 2025Trial
- Combining Ketamine Infusions and Written Exposure Therapy for Chronic PTSD: An Open-Label Trial.The Journal of clinical psychiatry · 2025Trial
- The effect of time since index trauma on trauma-related beliefs.Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy · 2024Trial
- Benchmarking secondary outcomes to posttraumatic stress disorder symptom change in response to cognitive processing and written exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2023Trial
- The temporal sequence of change in PTSD symptoms and hypothesized mediators in Cognitive Processing Therapy and Written Exposure Therapy for PTSD.Behaviour research and therapy · 2021Trial
- Predictors of Dropout in Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD: An Examination of Trauma Narrative Content.Behavior therapy · 2020Trial
- Personality profiles and trauma history in ketamine therapy for mood and anxiety disorders: A latent profile analysis of short-term outcomes.Psychopharmacology · 2026Article
- Clinician Assessed Rates of PTSD and Complex PTSD in a Medical-Rehabilitation Sample of Active-Duty Military Personnel in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2026Article
- State of the Science: Written Exposure Therapy for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.Behavior therapy · 2024Review
- Predictors of dropout in cognitive processing therapy for PTSD: An examination of in-session treatment processes.Behaviour research and therapy · 2023Article
- Long-term follow-up of a multimodal day clinic, group-based treatment program for patients with very high risk for complex posttraumatic stress disorder, and for patients with non-complex trauma-related disorders.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Perceived Barriers and Preliminary PTSD Outcomes in an Open Pilot Trial of Written Exposure Therapy With Latinx Immigrants.Cognitive and behavioral practice · 2022Article
- Longitudinal change in self-reported peritraumatic dissociation during and after a course of posttraumatic stress disorder treatment: Contributions of symptom severity and time.Psychological trauma : theory, research, practice and policy · 2021Article
- An Open Pilot Trial of Written Exposure Therapy for Patients With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Korea.Psychiatry investigation · 2021Article
- Comparing written exposure therapy to Prolonged Exposure for the treatment of PTSD in a veteran sample: A non-inferiority randomized design.Contemporary clinical trials communications · 2021Article
- Management of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder in Veterans and Military Service Members: A Review of Pharmacologic and Psychotherapeutic Interventions Since 2016.Current psychiatry reports · 2021Review
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundWritten exposure therapy (WET) is a 5-session PTSD treatment that may address barriers in treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) given its brevity and tolerability. A recent study found outcomes for WET were non-inferior to outcomes from Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) through 36 weeks from first treatment session (Sloan, Marx, Lee, & Resick, 2018); the current study examined whether treatment gains were maintained through 60 weeks from first session, and also evaluated both treatments' effect on depressive symptoms.
methodsThe study enrolled 126 individuals with PTSD randomized to WET or CPT. Assessments were conducted at baseline and 6, 12, 24, 36, and 60 weeks following the first treatment session. PTSD diagnosis and symptom severity were determined via the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5), and depression symptoms were assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-2.
resultsWET remained non-inferior to CPT through the 60 week assessment; the groups had a difference of less than 3 points in their total CAPS-5 scores, and within-condition effects on PTSD were large (WET d = 1.23; CPT d = 1.38). Both treatments significantly reduced depressive symptoms over the 60 week study, with the CPT group experiencing a more rapid decrease. The between-condition effect of treatment on depression was small (d = .19).
conclusionsWET is a treatment that is non-inferior to CPT with regard to PTSD symptoms, with treatment effects that are long-lasting. Additionally, both WET and CPT demonstrated substantial effects on depressive symptoms. WET should be considered a good option for PTSD treatment.
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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.