Verbal memory as a predictor of treatment outcome in brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD and EMDR

Objective: One of the most consistent findings in neuropsychological studies on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is impaired verbal memory. Effective trauma-focused treatment of PTSD relies heavily on memory function, but it is largely unknown whether deficits in verbal memory predict treatment outcome. The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between baseline verbal memory performance and treatment response to trauma-focused psychotherapy. Method: PTSD patients were randomly assigned to either Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing therapy (EMDR; N_70) or Brief Eclectic Psychotherapy (BEPP; N_70). Logistic and linear regression analyses were applied to determine if performance on verbal memory tests pre-treatment predicted response to trauma-focused psychotherapy in terms of clinician-rated PTSD diagnosis (yes/no) and decrease in self-reported PTSD (continuous). Results: Worse baseline encoding, short-term and long term retrieval and recognition performance significantly predicted less decrease in self-reported PTSD and more clinician-rated PTSD after trauma-focused psychotherapy. Conclusions: Verbal memory measures are helpful in determining whether patients will benefit from trauma-focused psychotherapy. Future research should explore how treatment perspectives of PTSD patients with poor verbal memory can be improved.

Conference

English

Mirjam Nijdam
Giel-Jan de Vries
Berthold Gersons
Miranda Olff

Nijdam, M., de Vries, G.-J., Gersons, B., & Olff, M. (2011, June). Verbal memory as a predictor of treatment outcome in brief eclectic psychotherapy for PTSD and EMDR. Symposium at the 12th European Conference on Traumatic Stress (ECOTS), Vienna, Austria