Virtual Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Effective in PTSD Patients

Recently, BMJ published a study that compared how effective virtual cognitive behavioral therapy is compared to face-to-face therapy in PTSD patients. The study was characterized as a non-inferiority trial to compare direct patient contact to virtual guided treatments. 

PTSD is a common psychiatric disorder experienced in the United States. According to the National Center for PTSD, 50–60% of Americans (depending on gender) will experience some traumatic event in their life that could trigger PTSD. Annually, 12 million adults will experience PTSD.  

This disorder is typically diagnosed by a psychiatrist or psychologist using criteria from the DSM-5. 

In this study, they identified 196 individuals diagnosed with mild-to-moderate PTSD. The group was split and given one of the two possible interventional therapies.  

The National Center for PTSD identifies trauma-focused psychotherapies as the most common and effective form of treatment for PTSD.  Trauma-focused psychotherapies can include exposure therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, or eye-movement desensitization and reprocessing.  

The American Psychological Association explains that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) “focuses on the relationship among thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and notes how changes in any one domain can improve functioning in the other domains.” 

The BMJ study provided participants with two forms of cognitive-behavioral therapy with a trauma focus (CBT-TF). One group received face-to-face therapy with a trained medical professional for up to 12 sessions ranging from 60 to 90 minutes. The other group participated in guided internet-based therapy and briefly contacted a therapist between sessions.  

To compare both forms of intervention, a smaller sample size was monitored on the PTSD scale for DSM-5 and secondary symptoms.  

The study concluded that virtual guided therapy was not inferior to face-to-face treatment, which has many implications in the regimens for PTSD treatment. Researchers highlighted that virtual CBT-TF was significantly less expensive than face-to-face treatment.  

Financial barriers are a common reason for forgoing mental healthcare. According to the Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, in 2018, costs for PTSD care amounted to $232.2 billion. On an individual level, that is an average cost of $19,630 annually.  

Left untreated, PTSD can contribute to multiple other psychiatric disorders and be fatal. Reducing the financial barrier to access to care could improve overall psychiatric outcomes.  

“The results should provide more choice and facilitate improvements to current care pathways for people with PTSD, that result in improved health and wellbeing,” researchers concluded in the publication.