What was helpful in today's session? Responses of clients in two different psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder.

The aim of this study was to qualitatively analyze and compare the written responses clients in treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) gave when asked about helpful and negative aspects of the previous session. Data were collected during a randomized quantitative study comparing dialogical exposure therapy (DET, a gestalt-based integrative therapy, = 58) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT, a cognitive-behavioral therapy, = 52). We developed a coding manual using Mayring's (2015) qualitative content analysis approach and were able to code responses reliably.

Difficulties in Conducting Long Term Follow Ups in Psychotherapy Research-Issues in the Literature and Data From a Randomized Therapy Comparison Study for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Studies of psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) typically encompass short follow-up periods, leading to a dearth of information on the long-term course of symptoms after treatment. We summarize existing long-term follow-up studies and highlight the issues making such research difficult. In this context, we report on a 2-year follow-up on a randomized treatment study comparing dialogical exposure therapy and cognitive processing therapy for adults with PTSD after type I trauma.

A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial of Dialogical Exposure Therapy versus Cognitive Processing Therapy for Adult Outpatients Suffering from PTSD after Type I Trauma in Adulthood.

Background: Although there are effective treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there is little research on treatments with non-cognitive-behavioural backgrounds, such as gestalt therapy. We tested an integrative gestalt-derived intervention, dialogical exposure therapy (DET), against an established cognitive-behavioural treatment (cognitive processing therapy, CPT) for possible differential effects in terms of symptomatic outcome and drop-out rates.

Methods: We randomized 141 treatment-seeking individuals with a diagnosis of PTSD to receive either DET or CPT.

Interpersonal Subtypes and Therapy Response in Patients Treated for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.

Unlabelled: Interpersonal traits may influence psychotherapy success. One way of conceptualizing such traits is the interpersonal circumplex model. In this study, we analyse interpersonal circumplex data, assessed with the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (Horowitz, Strauß, & Kordy, 1994) from a randomized study with 138 patients suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder after trauma in adulthood.

Dialogical Exposure with Traumatically Bereaved Bosnian Women: Findings from a Controlled Trial.

Objective: In this trial, we compared the relative efficacy of dialogical exposure group treatment using Gestalt empty-chair method with a supportive group in the treatment of symptoms stemming from traumatic loss in a post-war society.

Methods: One-hundred and nineteen women whose husbands were either killed or registered as missing during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina were quasi-randomized to seven sessions of group treatment with dialogical exposure or to an active control condition.

Results: Both interventions resulted in significant improvement from baseline to post-treatment for both kinds of loss, in terms of post-traumatic symptoms, general mental health and grief reactions, with the exception of depression and traumatic grief in the control condition.

Sudden gains in two psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder.

We examined sudden, large, and stable shifts in symptoms from one therapy session to the next in two treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Shifts in a positive direction (sudden gains) have so far been more frequently analyzed than those in a negative direction (sudden losses). We analyzed data from 102 outpatients suffering from PTSD who received either a cognitive-behavioral or a Gestalt-based intervention.

Feasibility and outcome of dialogical exposure therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder: a pilot study with 25 outpatients.

Objective: The research on psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) stems predominantly from a cognitive-behavioral orientation while other approaches are underrepresented. We evaluated dialogical exposure in trauma therapy (DET), a treatment for PTSD combining cognitive-behavioral elements with an interpersonal, gestalt-based framework.

Methods: In this uncontrolled pilot trial, 25 PTSD patients were treated with DET in an outpatient setting and 21 completed therapy.

Crisis intervention after the Tsunami in Phuket and Khao Lak.

After the Tsunami disaster in Southeast Asia, India, Sri Lanka, and Africa, the German government set up a crisis task force that implemented crisis-intervention teams covering Thailand (Phuket and Khao Lak), Sri Lanka, and Sumatra. Two crisis teams were sent to Phuket; the first one on 28 December 2004, and the second one on 3 January 2005, each for an average of 1 week. This intervention was primarily for the benefit of German citizens and their expatriates and relatives caught up in a major catastrophe as well as the German helpers.

Posttraumatic growth after war: a study with former refugees and displaced people in Sarajevo.

Research carried out with survivors of a variety of different traumata indicates that a large proportion of them perceive positive changes in themselves after the trauma. This study investigated whether posttraumatic growth also could be found among people who had been exposed to particularly severe traumata over a period of several years (1991 to 1995) during the war in the area of the former Yugoslavia. Included in the study were two representative samples of adult former refugees and displaced people who lived anywhere in former Yugoslavia before the war and were currently living in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, three and a half years after the war.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder three years after the siege of Sarajevo.

The goals of this study were to estimate the lifetime prevalence of traumatic events, the current prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and the connection between the kinds of traumatic events experienced and the probability of developing PTSD in three study samples in Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, three years after the end of the war. A total of 311 people surviving the siege of Sarajevo were assessed with the Checklist for War Related Experiences (CWE) and an adapted version of the Posttraumatic Diagnostic Scale (PDS). The study groups consisted of a randomly selected residents sample (n = 98), a group of individuals in psychological treatment (n = 114), and a group in medical treatment (n = 99).