Subjective improvement in PTSD patients with treatment by imaginal exposure or cognitive therapy: Session by session changes

A self-rating scale, the Subjective Symptom Checklist (SSC) was developed t o assess PTSD patients' perception of their symptoms between treatment sess ions. Reliability and validity of the scale were acceptable. The scale was used in a treatment trial comparing the efficacy of cognitive therapy versu s imaginal exposure. Conventional pre-post treatment comparisons using stan dardized assessments showed no differences between the two treatments. Howe ver, when patients who failed to respond to treatment were excluded, group treatment effects became apparent. Patients who received imaginal exposure showed a significantly greater reduction in subjective ratings of their sym ptoms than did those who received cognitive therapy. It was cautiously conc luded that although some PTSD patients could not tolerate exposure, those w ho could may receive greater subjective benefit than those who received cog nitive therapy.