@article{ref1,
title="Relationship between change in in-vivo exposure distress and PTSD symptoms during exposure therapy for active duty soldiers",
journal="Journal of psychiatric research",
year="2019",
author="Norr, Aaron M. and Bourassa, Kyle J. and Stevens, Elizabeth S. and Hawrilenko, Matthew J. and Michael, Scott T. and Reger, Greg M.",
volume="116",
number="",
pages="133-137",
abstract="OBJECTIVE: The current study sought to examine the relationship between changes in distress for items on in-vivo exposure hierarchies and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom change over the course of exposure therapy. <br><br>METHODS: Active duty army soldiers (N = 108) were recruited from a military base in the U.S. and were enrolled in a randomized clinical trial comparing Prolonged Exposure (PE), Virtual Reality Exposure (VRE), and a wait-list control for the treatment of PTSD stemming from deployments to Iraq or Afghanistan. PTSD diagnosis followed DSM-IV-TR criteria. Outcome measures were assessed via self-report and clinician interview. The relationships between in-vivo exposure distress, imaginal exposure distress, and PTSD symptoms, were examined in a factor of curves model for participants in the treatment conditions. <br><br>RESULTS: Analyses revealed that, when controlling for one another, changes in in-vivo exposure distress were significantly associated with changes in PTSD symptoms (β = 0.75, 95% CI [0.60, 0.90]), while changes in imaginal exposure distress were not (β = 0.03, 95% CI [-0.27, 0.33]). The model also revealed that after accounting for the shared variation in trajectories of change, symptom clusters did not have unique variation, meaning that symptom clusters did not change independently. <br><br>CONCLUSION: Results suggest the possibility that in-vivo exposures are more closely tied to changes in overall PTSD symptoms than imaginal exposures during exposure therapy. Furture research should incorporate more frequent measurement of in-vivo exposure distress to better elucidate these relations over the course of treatment.<br><br>Copyright © 2019. Published by Elsevier Ltd.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0022-3956",
doi="10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.06.013",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jpsychires.2019.06.013"
}