Outcome of treatment for post‐traumatic stress disorder in a primary care unit serving Vietnam veterans

Veterans diagnosed with PTSD (PTSD in‐treatment, N = 39), newly admitted to a comprehensive 90‐day inpatient treatment program, were tracked at 4‐week intervals from admission to discharge. Two control groups were also tracked over 12‐week periods — one of previously PTSD diagnosed and treated veterans (PTSD out‐of‐treatment, N = 26), and a second that combined non‐PTSD Vietnam era veterans (N = 17) and non‐veterans (N = 16) (non‐PTSD nontreatment). As measured by the Penn Inventory for PTSD, 48% of those who completed treatment showed some or substantial gains, 39% showed no gain, and 13% reported some increase in symptoms at the time of discharge. Several patterns were observed on other assessment measures. One year follow‐up for those who completed treatment showed a return to pretreatment levels on the PTSD symptom measures employed in this study. These results are discussed in relation to other treatment program outcome studies as a baseline for further research.