An Open Pilot Trial of Written Exposure Therapy for Patients With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Korea

Abstract

cused cognitive behavioral therapy, cognitive processing therapy (CPT), and prolonged exposure therapy (PE). These are strongly recommended first-line therapies in major PTSD treatment guidelines. 9 Recently, Sloan and Marx' s 10 research team introduced a fivesession exposure-based PTSD treatment protocol called written exposure therapy (WET). WET is recommended for the treatment of PTSD in clinical practice guidelines (Department of Veterans Affairs/Department of Defense, 2017). Like other EBTs, it comprises critical components considered to be responsible for the successful treatment of PTSD symptoms, such as therapeutic exposure and cognitive processing/cognitive restructuring. [10][11][12] However, WET requires a smaller number of sessions, shorter session durations, and no between-session assignments. 10,13 The efficacy of WET was evaluated using a randomized controlled trial, and this study reported a significant reduction in PTSD symptom severity at the post-treatment follow-up, and symptom reduction was maintained three and six months later with 7% of drop-out rate. 14 A study that directly compared WET

A systematic review of written exposure therapy for the treatment of posttraumatic stress symptoms.

“…Table 1 displays information regarding each of the 17 articles included in the review. Notably, 14 (82%) articles were published since 2020 (Ahmadi et al, 2022; Andrews et al, 2022; Ellis et al, 2023; LoSavio et al, 2023; Morissette et al, 2023; Nillni et al, 2023; Park et al, 2021; Schacht et al, 2023; Schumacher et al, 2023; Sloan et al, 2022, 2023; Tyler et al, 2022; Yun & Lee, 2022; Zolfa et al, 2023). Study sample sizes ranged from three to 277.…”

“…One of the ten open trial studies was a large ( N = 277) hybrid implementation-effectiveness study conducted within the Department of Veterans Affairs (LoSavio et al, 2023); LoSavio et al is one of only three (Morrissette et al, 2023; Sloan et al, 2023) effectiveness studies conducted to date, with the remaining studies representing efficacy design. Seven studies (38%) were published by authors other than the developers of WET (Ahmadi et al, 2022; Andrews et al, 2022; Ellis et al, 2023; Park et al, 2021; Schacht et al, 2023; Yun & Lee, 2022; Zolfa et al, 2023).…”

“…Three studies delivered WET using a massed format in which sessions were delivered multiple times within a week (Schacht et al, 2023; Schumacher et al, 2023; Tyler et al, 2022). Five of the 17 studies used a language translation version of the manual for a non-English-speaking sample (Ahmadi et al, 2022; Andrews et al, 2022; Park et al, 2021; Yun & Lee, 2022; Zolfa et al, 2023).…”

“…Ten of the 17 included studies required a PTSD diagnosis for inclusion (LoSavio et al, 2023; Park et al, 2021; Schumacher et al, 2023; Sloan et al, 2012, 2013, 2018, 2022, 2023; Tyler et al, 2022; Yun & Lee, 2022), whereas seven studies used a cutoff score on a PTSD self-report measure for inclusion (Ahmadi et al, 2022; Andrews et al, 2022; Ellis et al, 2023; Morissette et al, 2023; Nillni et al, 2023; Schacht et al, 2023; Zolfa et al, 2023).…”

Written Exposure Therapy for Korean Adolescents With PTSD: Four Case Studies

“…Compared to traditional CBT, WET has a shorter treatment time and a simple professional training process, which could potentially solve the difficulty in implementing traditional CBT. WET was also found to be an effective treatment for PTSD patients in Korea (Park et al, 2021). This suggests the feasibility of implementing WET to treat various types of patients with PTSD in Korea.…”