SEEKING SAFETY - OUTCOME OF A NEW COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOTHERAPY FOR WOMEN WITH POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER AND SUBSTANCE DEPENDENCE

Women with current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) comprise 30-59 % of substance abuse treatment samples and experience a more severe co urse than women with either disorder alone. Rs yet, no effective treat ment for this population has been identified. This paper reports outco me results on 17 women who completed a new manual-based 24-session cog nitive behavioral group therapy protocol treatment, based on assessmen ts at pretreatment, during treatment, posttreatment, and at 3-month fo llow-up. Results showed significant improvements in substance use, tra uma-related symptoms, suicide risk suicidal thoughts, social adjustmen t, family functioning, problem solving, depression, cognitions about s ubstance use, and didactic knowledge related to the treatment, patient s' treatment attendance, alliance, and satisfaction were also very str ong. Treatment completers were more impaired than dropouts, yet more e ngaged in the treatment Overall, our data suggest that women with PTSD and substance abuse can be helped when provided with a treatment desi gned for them. All results are clearly tentative, however due to the l ack of a control group, multiple comparisons, and absence of assessmen t of dropouts.