Comparing Imaginal Exposure and Imagery Rescripting in Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Comparing Imaginal Exposure (IE) and Imagery Rescripting and Reprocessing Therapy (IRRT) in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

The outcome of trauma treatment (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD) may be influenced by which emotions that are predominant among current symptoms, e.g. fear, anger, guilt, shame. Different treatment procedures for processing traumatic memories may resolve different emotions. This study compares two different treatment procedures of working with trauma memories in PTSD treatment (namely, Imaginal Exposure and Imagery Rescripting) in order to test this.

The main objectives of this study are:

1. To assess the relative efficacy of the two procedures in inpatient treatment for PTSD
2. To assess whether the predominant emotions in the traumatic memories moderate the outcome of the different procedures
3. To assess whether theory-derived constructs mediate outcome and whether the mediating relationships are different in the two treatments
4. To provide a theoretical account of the two models
5. To psychometrically evaluate 3 new measures

Inclusion Criteria:

• DSM-IV diagnosis of PTSD identified as primary diagnosis
• Accepts withdrawal of all psychotropic medication

Exclusion Criteria:

• Extensive dissociative symptoms or current psychosis,
• Current suicidal risk,
• Extensive current substance or alcohol abuse, or
• Ongoing trauma