SynthesisPsychological medicine2021
Long-term outcomes of psychological treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Synthesis in Psychological medicine, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 38 papers, 7 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
38 citing papers in PubMed, 7 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 76 citations in OpenAlex.
- A Systematic Review of Decision-Analytic Modelling Approaches in Economic Evaluations of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Treatments.PharmacoEconomics · 2026Pooled it
- Psychotherapeutic, pharmacological and other active interventions from the NICE guideline for post-traumatic stress disorder with sleep disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Molecular pathways of ketamine: A systematic review of immediate and sustained effects on PTSD.Psychopharmacology · 2025Pooled it
- Safety and efficacy of methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-assisted psychotherapy in post-traumatic stress disorder: An overview of systematic reviews and meta-analyses.The Australian and New Zealand journal of psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- A meta-analytic review of cognitive processing therapy with and without the written account.Journal of anxiety disorders · 2025Pooled it
- Effects of psychotherapy on brain activation during negative emotional processing in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Brain imaging and behavior · 2024Pooled it
- Brief CBT-based psychological interventions to improve mental health outcomes in refugee populations: a systematic review and meta-analysis.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Pooled it
- "The world does not look the same anymore": The experiences of patients six months after finishing an intensive trauma treatment program.BMC psychology · 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
- The effect of peer group management intervention on chronic pain intensity, number of areas of pain, and pain self-efficacy.Scandinavian journal of pain · 2025Trial
- 12-month follow-up of intensive outpatient treatment for PTSD combining prolonged exposure therapy, EMDR and physical activity.BMC psychiatry · 2024Trial
- The dilemma of trauma-focused therapy: effects of imagery rescripting on voluntary memory.Psychological research · 2023Trial
- Psychotherapy for PTSD - a scoping review of how change during treatment has been studied.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Augmenting virtual reality exposure for PTSD with physical activity: study protocol of a randomised controlled trial.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2026Article
- Psychological distress, PTSD, and complex PTSD in a war-torn population: a two-wave longitudinal study among medical students in Gaza.Social psychiatry and psychiatric epidemiology · 2026Article
- Psychological and psychosocial interventions for trauma-related psychological distress in adults living in ongoing conflict.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2026Article
- Childhood maltreatment and mid-life cognitive functioning: divergent psychosocial pathways linked to ethnoracial group.Journal of behavioral medicine · 2026Article
- Intensive trauma-focused treatment for PTSD and Complex PTSD in a public clinic: a feasibility study.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- When does machine learning outperform clinicians? A comparison of prediction accuracy for PTSD treatment outcomes.Psychological medicine · 2025Article
- Effectiveness in routine care: trauma-focused treatment for PTSD.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
8 authors at 6 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Several types of psychological treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are considered well established and effective, but evidence of their long-term efficacy is limited. This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed to investigate the long-term outcomes across psychological treatments for PTSD. MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, PTSDpubs, PsycINFO, PSYNDEX, and related articles were searched for randomized controlled trials with at least 12 months of follow-up. Twenty-two studies (N = 2638) met inclusion criteria, and 43 comparisons of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) were available at follow-up. Active treatments for PTSD yielded large effect sizes from pretest to follow-up and a small controlled effect size compared with non-directive control groups at follow-up. Trauma-focused treatment (TFT) and non-TFT showed large improvements from pretest to follow-up, and effect sizes did not significantly differ from each other. Active treatments for comorbid depressive symptoms revealed small to medium effect sizes at follow-up, and improved PTSD and depressive symptoms remained stable from treatment end to follow-up. Military personnel, low proportion of female patients, and self-rated PTSD measures were associated with decreased effect sizes for PTSD at follow-up. The findings suggest that CBT for PTSD is efficacious in the long term. Future studies are needed to determine the lasting efficacy of other psychological treatments and to confirm benefits beyond 12-month follow-up.
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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.