[Trauma-focused psychotherapies: what are the commonalities?]

A number of evidence-based psychotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are available. They differ in various ways, however, they also have a number of commonalities. Given this situation, clinicians may wonder which treatment program to use, or more specifically, which treatment components are critical for a successful therapy. The following treatment components can be found in almost all effective psychotherapies for PTSD: psycho­education; teaching emotion regulation and coping skills; imaginal exposure, cognitive processing, restructuring and/or meaning making; targeting emotions; and the reorganization of memory functions. The underlying mechanisms of action are not sufficiently investigated. In the future, treatments should be tailored more specifically depending on certain patient characteristics. Also, the additional benefit of interventions aimed at improving resilience remains to be established.