Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in rape victims: a comparison between cognitive-behavioral procedures and counseling

J Consult Clin Psychol. 1991 Oct;59(5):715-23. doi: 10.1037//0022-006x.59.5.715.

Abstract

Rape victims with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; N = 45) were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: stress inoculation training (SIT), prolonged exposure (PE), supportive counseling (SC), or wait-list control (WL). Treatments consisted of nine biweekly 90-min individual sessions conducted by a female therapist. Measures of PTSD symptoms, rape-related distress, general anxiety, and depression were administered at pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up (M = 3.5 months posttreatment). All conditions produced improvement on all measures immediately post-treatment and at follow-up. However, SIT produced significantly more improvement on PTSD symptoms than did SC and WL immediately following treatment. At follow-up, PE produced superior outcome on PTSD symptoms. The implications of these findings and direction for treatment and future research are discussed.

Publication types

  • Clinical Trial
  • Randomized Controlled Trial
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adaptation, Psychological
  • Adult
  • Behavior Therapy / methods*
  • Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / methods*
  • Counseling / methods*
  • Female
  • Follow-Up Studies
  • Humans
  • Personality Inventory
  • Rape / psychology*
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / psychology
  • Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / therapy*