title: The evidence for present-centered therapy as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder.
abstract: To examine the evidence for present-centered therapy (PCT) as a treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), 5 randomized clinical trials that compared PCT to an existing evidence-based treatment for PTSD were reviewed. A meta-analysis was used to estimate between-treatment differences on targeted measures, secondary measures, and dropout. PCT was found to be as efficacious as the comparison evidence-based treatment in 3 of the 5 trials, and in the 2 cases where a no-treatment condition was included, PCT was superior, with large effect sizes for targeted variables (d = 0.88, 0.74, and 1.27). When results were aggregated using meta-analysis, effects for PCT versus an evidence-based treatment for both targeted and secondary measures were small and nonsignificant (d = 0.13 and d = 0.09, respectively). As well, the dropout rate for PCT was significantly less than for the comparison evidence-based treatments (14.3% and 31.3%, respectively). It appears that PCT is an efficacious and acceptable treatment for PTSD.
authors: Department of Counseling Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin, USA.
authors: Nickolas D
authors: ND
authors: Frost
authors: Kevin M
authors: KM
authors: Laska
authors: Bruce E
authors: BE
authors: Wampold
mesh_terms: D003130:Combat Disorders / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014728:Veterans / Q000523:psychology*