AN OPEN TRIAL OF EXPOSURE THERAPY BASED ON DECONDITIONING FOR POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER

Twenty-three patients who had experienced a major stressful event were given a debriefing session followed by eight weer;ly sessions of imag inal exposure and in vivo exposure. Patients recounted their traumatic experiences aloud, using the first person and the present tense, and included as much detail as possible. This account was audiotaped and p atients were asked to listen to the tape between treatment sessions. T here were reductions of 42 per cent in the Impact of Events Scale (IES ), of 61 per cent in the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), of 38 per cent in the Symptom Checklist-90 (SCL-90) questionnaire, and of 35 pe r cent in the Clinician Administered Post-Traumatic Stress scale (CAPS ), all of which were statistically significant. The number of patients who satisfied the diagnostic criteria for post-traumatic stress disor der was halved.