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Imagery Rescripting as stand-alone treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder related to childhood abuse
Sandra Raabe1, Thomas Ehring2, Loes Marquenie3
1University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
Objective:
This case series tested the feasibility and explored the efficacy of Imagery Rescripting (ImRs) as a stand-alone treatment for PTSD related to childhood physical and/or sexual abuse (CA).
Method:
Participants (6 women and 2 men) were patients with PTSD related to CA who entered an 8 week treatment program with 16 twice-weekly ImRs sessions. Blind assessments took place at pre- and post-treatment and at 3 month follow-up.
Results:
Participants showed improvement in both self-reported and clinician-rated PTSD symptoms. Gains were maintained at 3-month follow-up. At post-treatment, 50% of participants no longer met criteria for PTSD, and this number increased to 75% at 3 month follow-up.
Limitations:
The main limitation is the small sample size and the selective nature of the sample, which limits the generalizability of the findings.
Conclusions:
This pilot study suggests that Imagery Rescripting as stand-alone treatment is feasible and effective without prior stabilization in an outpatient population with CA-related PTSD. Further replication is needed in form of a randomized controlled trial.
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