Study: Group therapy helps with combat stress

Study: Group therapy helps with combat stress

By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer
Posted : Monday Jul 28, 2008 6:30:09 EDT

Three new studies looking at combat stress have found group exposure therapy seems to work, that troops with traumatic brain injuries are more likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder, and that stress debriefings held after traumatic events don’t appear to prevent PTSD.

The research comes as the Department of Veterans Affairs works to find the best treatment methods for combat veterans. It follows a report by Rand Corp. that showed only one treatment method — exposure therapy — has been proven to help PTSD in studies by objective researchers.

The first study looked at a program that had been in place for four years at the Atlanta VA Medical Center. The center’s Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Clinical Team began researching group-based exposure treatment.

Past studies have shown group therapy to be ineffective on veterans with PTSD, but authors of this study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Traumatic Stress, said the amount of exposure therapy — 60 hours — in this group may be the key to why it works.

First, nine to 11 people get to know each other and talk about their experiences before they joined the military. Then, they spend several weeks talking about their wartime experiences.

Each person gives a 2½-hour presentation to the group about what they witnessed, and then they privately listen to recordings of their own presentation 10 times. Each then gives a second presentation about their traumatic wartime experiences, which they also listen to 10 times. Toward the end of 18 weeks, they work on feelings of grief and guilt.

A total of 93 Vietnam veterans, four Gulf War veterans, one Korean War veteran and two Iraq war veterans took part in the study, with 81 percent showing “clinically significant improvement,” which was still at 81 percent six months later.
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http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/07/army_ptsdstudies_072808w/