Hope as a change mechanism in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder.

Research exploring nonspecific mechanisms of change is necessary to understand processes that contribute to psychotherapy outcomes. Many veterans diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report a profound sense of hopelessness prior to receiving treatment, and thus one possible nontargeted change mechanism is the enhancement of hope. In this study, 164 veterans diagnosed with PTSD and admitted to a Veteran’s Administration residential treatment program received 6 weeks of cognitive processing therapy. Measures of PTSD symptoms, depression and hope were gathered across the course of treatment. Results revealed that higher levels of hope midway through treatment affected reductions in PTSD and depression from mid- to posttreatment (and not the other way around), thus supporting that hope is one nonspecific change mechanism toward symptom reduction. Implications of these findings as they extend to cognitive-behavior therapies as a whole, and to the understanding of how psychological strengths serve as nonspecific change mechanisms in the treatment of PTSD, conclude the article.