Improving mental, physical, and social functioning through participation in a 3-week cognitive processing...

Area of Science:

• Psychiatry
• Clinical Psychology
• Military Health

Background:

• Brief intensive treatment programs (ITPs), including Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), effectively reduce posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom severity in veterans.
• While ITPs demonstrate sustained reductions in PTSD symptoms, their impact on broader mental, physical, and social functioning remains under-explored.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effects of a 3-week CPT-based ITP on mental, physical, and social functioning in veterans with PTSD.
• To identify predictors of improved functioning at 3-month follow-up after ITP completion.

Main Methods:

• A cohort of 204 veterans and 5 service members completed a 3-week CPT-based ITP.
• A two-stage mixed effects location-scale model analyzed PTSD symptom change and predicted functioning at 3-month follow-up.

Main Results:

• Veterans reported moderate improvements in mental (d=0.52), physical (d=0.42), and social functioning (d=0.55) from pre-treatment to 3-month follow-up.
• Significant reductions in PTSD severity during treatment, not symptom fluctuation, predicted enhanced mental, physical, and social functioning at follow-up.

Conclusions:

• ITPs can facilitate meaningful improvements in functioning for veterans with PTSD within a short treatment duration.
• Reductions in PTSD symptoms are crucial for improving overall well-being and functioning in this population.