title: Patient characteristics as a moderator of post-traumatic stress disorder treatment outcome: combining symptom burden and strengths.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) psychotherapy research has failed to identify patient characteristics that consistently predict differential outcome.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify patient characteristics associated with differential outcome via a statistically generated composite moderator among women with childhood abuse-related PTSD in a randomised controlled trial comparing exposure therapy, skills training and their combination.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six baseline patient characteristics were combined in a composite moderator of treatment effects for PTSD symptoms across the three treatment conditions through a 6-month follow-up.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The optimal moderator was the combined burden of all symptoms and emotion regulation strength. Those with high moderator scores, reflecting high symptom load relative to emotion regulation, did least well in exposure, moderately well in skills and best in the combination.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A clinically meaningful moderator, which combines patient symptom burden and strengths, was identified. Assessment at follow-up may provide a more accurate indicator of variability in outcome than that obtained immediately post-treatment.
  
  
  BACKGROUND
  None.
  © The Royal College of Psychiatrists 2016. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Non-Commercial, No Derivatives (CC BY-NC-ND) licence.
authors.affiliation: , PhD, National Center for PTSD Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Menlo Park, California, USA; NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Marylene
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cloitre
authors.affiliation: , PhD, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical Center; Nathan Kline Institute for Psychiatric Research, New York State Office of Mental HealthH, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Eva
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Petkova
authors.affiliation: , MA, Department of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, NYU Langone Medical Center, New York, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Zhe
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Su
authors.affiliation: , PhD, National Center for PTSD Dissemination and Training Division, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Menlo Park, California, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University School of Medicine, Palo Alto, California, USA.
authors.forename: Brandon
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Weiss