Citation

Gerardi M, Rothbaum BO, Astin MC, Kelley M. J. Aggression Maltreat. Trauma 2010; 19(4): 349-356.

Affiliation

Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Emory University School of Medicine.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/10926771003781297

PMID

20526437

PMCID

PMC2880549

Abstract

This study examined changes in salivary cortisol levels pre-to-post-treatment in adult female rape victims diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) randomly assigned to be treated with either Prolonged Exposure Therapy or Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Salivary cortisol was collected at baseline, session 3, and session 9. A significant decrease in salivary cortisol levels was observed in individuals classified as treatment responders in both treatment conditions. Findings suggest that successful exposure-based treatments for PTSD which result in trauma-related and depressive symptom reduction may impact the action of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis as measured by changes in level of salivary cortisol from pre-to-post-treatment.

Language: en