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Couples therapy eases PTSD

80 per cent of participants cured: study

A new Canadian study suggests talk therapy involving couples can make a big difference in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD.

The small study found that 80 per cent of participants with PTSD improved to the point where they were no longer considered to be suffering from the condition after 15 sessions of cognitive behavioural couple therapy.

The work, which was led by a researcher at Ryerson University in Toronto, is published in this week's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Lead author Candice Monson says the idea to look at whether couples therapy was useful in treating PTSD stems from the growing awareness that the condition places relationships under severe stress and can lead to divorce.

While some clinicians have used cognitive behavioural couples therapy for PTSD, it is not currently used extensively for the condition.

This study compared disability status and relationship satisfaction levels in 20 couples randomly assigned to get the therapy versus 20 who were put on a waiting list for the treatment.

The therapy involved 15 sessions lasting 75 minutes apiece. The couples who didn't originally get the therapy were offered it after the study was completed.

The study included both heterosexual and same-sex couples but in all cases only one member of the couple was suffering from PTSD.

The study was funded by the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health.

"The take-home message is that of the individuals at the end of treatment that were assessed, that 80 per cent of them lost their diagnosis of PTSD," says Monson, who is a professor of psychology and director of clinical training at Ryerson.