Psychological and Pharmacological Treatments for Adults With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review Update | Effective Health Care Program

Psychological and Pharmacological Treatments for Adults With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review Update | Effective Health Care Program

Psychological and Pharmacological Treatments for Adults With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review Update
(Systematic Review, released on May 17, 2018)

Selected Key Messages:

• Cognitive behavioral exposure therapies and cognitive behavioral therapies with mixed components are effective to decrease PTSD symptoms and depression symptoms, and for loss of PTSD diagnosis. Cognitive processing therapy, cognitive therapy, and eye movement desensitization reprocessing are most likely effective to decrease PTSD and depression symptoms, and for loss of PTSD diagnosis. Narrative exposure therapy is most likely effective to decrease PTSD symptoms.
• Paroxetine and venlafaxine are most likely effective to decrease PTSD symptoms and depression symptoms, and for PTSD symptom remission. Fluoxetine is most likely effective to decrease PTSD symptoms.
• The majority of psychological trials reported no information about adverse events; pharmacological treatments did not appear to be associated with any significant adverse events (only venlafaxine appears to increase the risk of nausea compared with placebo), but more evidence is needed.
• No conclusions can be made from the few trials that examine differences in benefit of treatments by patient characteristics or type of trauma exposure.
• To improve PTSD treatment research, additional studies should directly compare the benefit of treatments, examine adverse events, and determine whether treatment benefit differs by particular characteristics related to the nature of the trauma exposure, co-occurring disorders, or demographic characteristics of the patient. 

For more, see: https://effectivehealthcare.ahrq.gov/topics/ptsd-adult-treatment-update/research-2018