Intensive trauma therapy of PTSD and dissociation: An outcome study

An intensive outpatient treatment program was developed to treat posttraumatic patients referred from distant areas where the needed treatment was not available. This report addresses the question, “Is it possible to effectively treat patients with PTSD and/or dissociative disorders in a brief outpatient program of 1 or 2 weeks?”The treatment methods relied heavily on art therapy, hypnosis, and video therapy. This was a naturalistic study with pre- and post-test data on the first 72 patients who completed the program.Forty-five percent of the participants met criteria for recovery, 44% were improved, 8% were unchanged, and 3% were worse after treatment. The improvement in scores on the post-treatment measures was robust and statistically significant for all groups of patients.Brief intensive outpatient trauma therapy appears to be a feasible treatment for posttraumatic disorders. There was no significant difference between the various diagnostic categories in terms of improvement or recovery.