Benchmarking quality of life to posttraumatic stress disorder symptom changes in cognitive processing therapy

• Published in: Journal of anxiety disorders 2023-01, Vol.93, p.102647-102647, Article 102647
• Main Authors: Hamrick, Lauren, Larsen, Sadie E., Sippel, Lauren M., Sherman, Kate, Resick, Patricia, Galovski, Tara
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Benchmarking; Cognitive behavior therapy; Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; Female; Humans; Posttraumatic stress; Quality of Life; Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic - psychology; Veterans - psychology
• ISSN: 0887-6185; 1873-7897
• DOI: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2022.102647

Although there is ample evidence that PTSD is effectively treated by first-line therapies such as Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), it is less clear to what degree these treatments improve quality of life (QOL), a common presenting concern of treatment-seeking individuals (Rosen et al., 2013). Only two studies, both conducted in military veteran samples, have examined the magnitude of PTSD symptom change needed in order to achieve corresponding changes in QOL during treatment. The current study aimed to replicate and extend these two previous studies by benchmarking multi-faceted QOL in a civilian sample of primarily female interpersonal violence survivors (N = 115) treated with CPT. We grouped participants into categories of increasingly greater PTSD symptom change: no response, response, loss of diagnosis, and remission. Outcomes were clinically meaningful change and good endpoint across five measures of QOL. Some QOL measures showed clinically meaningful change and/or good endpoint after a response to treatment or loss of diagnosis, but only remission from PTSD was associated with both clinically meaningful change and a good endpoint across all QOL indicators. These findings add to the emerging literature showing that treating PTSD to remission may maximize the likelihood of improvements in quality of life. •Change in PTSD symptoms was classified as no response, response, loss of diagnosis, or remission.•Loss of PTSD diagnosis and remission both had increased odds of improvements in quality of life.•PTSD remission had the best odds of good endpoint across measures of quality of life.