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Augmentation of sertraline with prolonged exposure in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder
Author(s) -
Rothbaum Barbara O.,
Cahill Shawn P.,
Foa Edna B.,
Davidson Jonathan R. T.,
Compton Jill,
Connor Kathryn M.,
Astin Millie C.,
Hahn ChangGyu
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
journal of traumatic stress
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.259
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1573-6598
pISSN - 0894-9867
DOI - 10.1002/jts.20170
Subject(s) - sertraline , posttraumatic stress , medicine , psychology , psychiatry , anxiety disorder , reuptake inhibitor , antidepressant , anxiety
The present study was designed to determine whether augmenting sertraline with prolonged exposure (PE) would result in greater improvement than continuation with sertraline alone. Outpatient men and women with chronic PTSD completed 10 weeks of open label sertraline and then were randomly assigned to five additional weeks of sertraline alone ( n = 31) or sertraline plus 10 sessions of twice‐weekly PE ( n = 34). Results indicated that sertraline led to a significant reduction in PTSD severity after 10 weeks but was associated with no further reductions after five more weeks. Participants who received PE showed further reduction in PTSD severity. This augmentation effect was observed only for participants who showed a partial response to medication.