Format: Audio MP3 file download

Presenter: Christine Courtois, PhD

PTSD Treatment Guidelines and Clinical Care: The Significance of Relationship

The U.S. health care system increasingly utilizes clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) based on stringent systematic reviews of research findings to inform decision-making about care. There are relatively few guidelines, however, that address mental and behavioral health conditions, or that include psychological interventions. To address this, in 2010, the American Psychological Association adopted the Institute of Medicine (IOM) standards for clinical practice guidelines and selected the treatment of PTSD as a topic for review. The resultant recommendations, ?Clinical Practice Guideline for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults? were accepted in early 2017, to be accompanied by a companion Professional Practice Guideline (PPG). Professional Practice Guidelines are more broad-based documents that rely on reviews of clinical experience and consensus about the treatment of a particular population and condition.

The recommendations - along with the strengths and limitations - of the APA guideline will be presented and its findings compared to those of others addressing PTSD treatment. Major recommendations of Professional Practice Guidelines and other authoritative writing for treatment of all forms of PTSD (including the Dissociative Disorders) will be reviewed, along with attention paid to the use of hypnosis. Increasingly, emphasis is being placed on the significance of the relationship for the treatment of traumatized individuals, especially those who were interpersonally victimized. This plenary will summarize aspects of the relationship that are particularly pertinent to treatment of traumatized individuals.

By the completion of this workshop, participants will be able to:
List what treatments for PTSD that are evidence based, according to the APA Clinical Practice Guidelines.
Differentiate between a Clinical Practice Guideline and a Professional Practice guideline.
List several relational strategies that have an evidence base.