Cognitive-behavioral Therapy of Patients with Ptsd: Literature Review

Exposure therapy was the first one, which effectiveness was proved in psychological treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, studies have shown that this therapy was appropriate for some patients with PTSD, what caused the development of other models and therapies, among which the most important and effective are the theories of information processing and emotional processing. Studies have proved that cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) effectively reduces PTSD symptoms and accompanying depression, anxiety, giving similar results. CBT is a short-term therapy, and the achieved results are maintained afterwards. The main purpose of the PTSD cognitive-behavioral therapy is to reduce discomfort and improve the patient life. According to the authors of contemporary models of PTSD cognitive therapy, the patients’ emotional involvement in traumatic memories makes a distorted cognitive content accessible and creates a base for its modification, using a combination of cognitive and behavioral techniques to help patients identify and modify distorted beliefs connected with PTSD. Lack of knowledge about change mechanisms, the most responsive to therapy symptoms, do not let to answer the question - whether PTSD cognitive-behavioral therapy will be the therapy of future. It depends on the fact if the current research results will help develop effective PTSD therapies methods. This presentation provides an overview of basic concepts, application principles, and research results on the effectiveness of PTSD cognitive-behavioral therapy.