'Prolonged exposure' therapy may help vets with PTSD

Like anything else, it can help if it is done right. If they just make the veterans relive it, then it won't help them heal. If they address every other part of it including the "moral injury" when necessary depending on the stressor, then it does wonders.

'Prolonged exposure' therapy may help vets with PTSD
By Genevra Pittman
NEW YORK
Wed Jul 17, 2013

(Reuters Health) - Therapy that involves repeatedly processing painful memories and approaching anxiety-provoking situations in a safe way may ease symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among veterans, a new study suggests.

Although there is good evidence so-called prolonged exposure therapy can help people with PTSD, researchers said most of the data come from civilians, including women who have been sexually assaulted.

"One of the important factors in chronic PTSD is avoidance - avoiding thinking about the trauma and avoiding going to places that remind you of the trauma or are similar," said Edna Foa, head of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia and a developer of prolonged exposure therapy.

The idea behind prolonged exposure is "helping the patient confront the memories and confront the situations they avoid," added Foa, who wasn't involved in the new study.

"They realize they can talk about this event, and they don't fall apart. It gives them a sense of control over the memory, rather than the memory controlling them."

One Veterans Affairs report showed that of about 830,000 veterans who were treated at VA medical centers over the last decade, 29 percent had a diagnosis of PTSD and 22 percent were depressed.
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Linked from CNN