Comparing intensive trauma-focused treatment outcome on PTSD symptom severity in older and younger adults
Examination of an intensive trauma-focused treatment program including EMDR therapy and other treatments, comparing outcomes between older and younger patients with PTSD.
Article Abstract
“Objective: To examine the treatment outcome of an intensive trauma-focused treatment program for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in older and younger adults.
Methods: A non-randomized outcome study was conducted with 62 consecutively admitted older PTSD patients (60–78 years) and 62 younger PTSD patients (19–58 years), matched on gender and availability of follow-up data. Patients participated in an intensive eight-day trauma-focused treatment program consisting of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), prolonged exposure (PE), physical activity, and group psycho-education. PTSD symptom severity (Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale-5 (CAPS-5)) was assessed, at pre- and post-treatment, and for a subsample (n = 31 older; n = 31 younger patients) at six-month follow-up.
Results: A repeated-measures ANCOVA (centered CAPS pre-treatment score as covariate) indicated a significant decrease in CAPS-5-scores from pre- to post-treatment for the total sample (partial η2 = 0.808). The treatment outcome was not significantly different across age groups (partial η2 = 0.002). There were no significant differences in treatment response across age groups for the follow-up subsample (pre- to post-treatment partial η2 < 0.001; post-treatment to follow-up partial η2 = 0.006), and the large decrease in CAPS-5 scores from pre- to post-treatment (partial η2 = 0.76) was maintained at follow-up (partial η2 = 0.003).
Conclusion: The results suggest that intensive trauma-focused treatment is applicable for older adults with PTSD with a large within-effect size comparable to younger participants. Further research on age-related features is needed to examine whether these results can be replicated in the oldest-old (>80).”
—Description from publisher
Article Access
Open Access
Gielkens, E. M. J., de Jongh, A., Sobczak, S., Rossi, G., van Minnen, A., Voorendonk, E. M., Rozendaal, L., & van Alphen, S. P. J. (2021). Comparing intensive trauma-focused treatment outcome on PTSD symptom severity in older and younger adults. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(6), 1246. Open access: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10061246
Date
March 17, 2021
Creator(s)
Ellen M. J. Gielkens, Ad de Jongh, Sjacko Sobczak
Contributor(s)
Gina Rossi, Agnes van Minnen, Eline M. Voorendonk, Linda Rozendaal, Sebastiaan P. J. van Alphen
Topics
PTSD
Client Population
Older Adults
Practice & Methods
Integrative Therapies, Intensives
Extent
12 pages
Publisher
MDPI
Rights
Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
APA Citation
Gielkens, E. M. J., de Jongh, A., Sobczak, S., Rossi, G., van Minnen, A., Voorendonk, E. M., Rozendaal, L., & van Alphen, S. P. J. (2021). Comparing intensive trauma-focused treatment outcome on PTSD symptom severity in older and younger adults. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 10(6), 1246. Open access: https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm10061246
Audience
EMDR Therapists
Language
English
Content Type
Article, Peer-Reviewed
Access Type
External Resource, Open Access
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