Maercker Et Al. (2006) Cite

¶ … Maercker et al. (2006) cite research that suggests that motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) are one of the most common events that lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in Germany and the United States. While there are medications that can be used to treat some of the symptoms of PTSD there are no medications to treat the entire spectrum of PTSD symptoms or that are approved to treat PTSD proper. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) usually includes techniques like exposure and cognitive restructuring and has been empirically demonstrated to be an effective treatment for PTSD. More recent additions to the CBT techniques for treating PTSD have not been fully empirically tested such as writing assignments and social sharing. The researchers performed a randomized controlled placebo study to determine the effectiveness of these additional techniques. PTSD was determined by the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) scores following involvement in an MVA. Participants were then randomly assigned to a CBT condition or a waitlist control condition (WLC). WLC participants were told that their treatment will begin in 2 to 3 months and that they would need to be reassessed periodically. The statistics included the repeated measures ANOVA. The results were significant in that the CBT group demonstrated significantly greater symptom reduction than WLC group over the study (F (1, 42) = 51.0, p < .001). A categorical analysis using the CAPS scores (PTSD/no PTSD) over time indicated that the CBT group had significantly more non-PTSD members at post treatment, Chi2 (1, 21) = 3.70, p < 0.05. Other analyses included measuring depression and other symptoms indicated the treatment group was significantly improved compared to the WLC. CA three-month follow-up using a series of repeated MANOVAS indicated stability in the findings.

The use of the randomized placebo-controlled design certainly is appropriate for a study attempting to determine if a certain type of therapy is better than no treatment at all. However, the study sought to determine if new or additional CBT techniques were effective. The control condition for this study should have been broken up into two different groups: a WLC group and a group that received traditional CBT without new techniques involved. The current study only affirms that CBT is effective in treating PTSD; however, it does not determine if the new additional techniques over the traditional CBT techniques offer any incremental validity in the treatment of PTSD. Therefore, the overall design of the study is flawed. Moreover, we do not know which CBT techniques were beneficial in treatment. Perhaps a mixed design could have assisted in better understanding this.