Traditional PTSD therapy doesn't trigger drug relapse
People with addiction aren't getting effective treatment for PTSD due to incorrect presumptions

Date:
July 20, 2020
Source:
Johns Hopkins Medicine
Summary:
Researchers have now demonstrated that behavior therapy that exposes
people to memories of their trauma doesn't cause relapses of opioid
or other drug use, and that PTSD severity and emotional problems
have decreased after the first therapy session.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== About a quarter of people with drug or alcohol use disorders also suffer
from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is typically caused by
a traumatic or stressful life event such as rape or combat, and which
leaves the person with intense anxiety. However, patients and health
care providers have been reluctant to pursue the gold-standard treatment
for PTSD -- cognitive behavioral therapy -- because they anticipate
that thinking and talking about traumatic events during therapy will
cause relapse.


========================================================================== Johns Hopkins researchers have now demonstrated that behavior therapy
that exposes people to memories of their trauma doesn't cause relapses of opioid or other drug use, and that PTSD severity and emotional problems
have decreased after the first therapy session.

These findings were published June 29 in the Journal of Traumatic Stress.

This work originated from a larger project in which Jessica Peirce,
Ph.D., associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at
the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and her colleagues
tested how to get often reluctant patients in addiction treatment
to participate in PTSD therapy. In a 2017 article in the Journal of
Consulting and Clinical Psychology, her team showed that patients with
opioid dependence attended on average nine exposure therapy sessions
for treating PTSD when given money as an incentive, compared with only
one session without the incentive.

Building on this earlier work, for the new study, her team examined
week-to- week comparisons of cravings for opioids or other drugs before
and after therapy sessions, self-reported days of drug use, and other
distress. The researchers found there was no increase in use of opioids or other drugs, or in reported instances of stress after therapy sessions to
treat PTSD. By the ninth therapy session, PTSD severity scores decreased,
on average, by 54% compared to the first session.

"Now that we have evidence that treating PTSD won't impact recovery,
patients can request therapy, and mental health providers have a duty
to make it available to their patients," says Peirce. "There is a lot
more resilience within this population than many health care providers
give them credit for, and not offering the proper treatment is doing
patients a disservice." Other authors of the study were Robert Brooner
of Johns Hopkins and Rebecca Schacht of the University of Maryland,
Baltimore County.

This study was supported by the National Institute on Drug Abuse
(R34DA032689).


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Johns_Hopkins_Medicine. Note:
Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jessica M. Peirce, Rebecca L. Schacht, Robert K. Brooner. The
Effects of
Prolonged Exposure on Substance Use in Patients with Posttraumatic
Stress Disorder and Substance Use Disorders. Journal of Traumatic
Stress, 2020; DOI: 10.1002/jts.22546 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/07/200720092838.htm

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