The emergence of accelerated resolution therapy for treatment of post‐traumatic stress disorder: A review and new subgroup analyses

Abstract

Introduction Post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic, disabling psychiatric disorder prevalent among civilian and military personnel in the United States (US) and United Kingdom (UK). Current trauma‐focused psychotherapies may place high emotional demands and lengthy treatment commitment that may hinder successful treatment completion for some patients. Accelerated resolution therapy (ART) is an emerging trauma‐focused psychotherapy that is briefer than most current treatments. Materials and Methods This review describes the ART clinical protocol and theoretical underpinnings, its relationship to current treatments and formal established treatment guidelines and empirical research data. Also presented are new subgroup data for the use of ART among clients with PTSD and concomitant traumatic brain injury (TBI), and among US Special Operations Forces (SOF) personnel with extensive combat‐related trauma exposure. Treatment response was defined as ≥10‐point reduction on the 17‐item PCL‐M (PTSD Checklist). Results In subgroup analyses, mean treatment with ART consisted of approximately four sessions. Among 202 US service members/veterans, intention‐to‐treat response rates (assuming no response for non‐completers) by TBI status were as follows: no TBI (58.1%, n = 105), mild TBI (60.4%, n = 48), moderate/severe TBI (46.9%, n = 49). Among 141 US service members/veterans, intention‐to‐treat response rates by SOF status were as follows: non‐SOF (54.3%, n = 116), SOF (60.0%, n = 25). Conclusion The ART protocol aligns closely with established first‐line trauma‐focused psychotherapies and clinical guidelines. It appears to provide frequent clinical relief of symptoms of PTSD in an average of four sessions among military personnel with challenging clinical presentations, including concomitant TBI and extensive operational combat‐related trauma.

A systematic review on integrated care for traumatic brain injury, mental health, and substance use

“…Apart from case studies, which predominantly comprised participants of a single sex or gender, none of the articles in this review reported sex- or gender-stratified data. Furthermore, two studies reported findings on men and women but were described as ‘sex’ [ 55 , 56 ] while 12 studies reported findings on males and females but were described as ‘gender’ [ 69 , 74 – 76 , 85 , 86 , 92 , 95 , 98 , 103 – 105 ]. Clear reporting of sex and gender data are needed to inform gender transformative integrated care.…”

Comparison of Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART) for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Between Veterans With and Without Prior PTSD Treatment

“…Therefore, the treatment protocol of ART may address some of the limitations of the current first-line psychotherapies. ART has a solid theoretical basis (Kip et al, 2014;Kip & Diamond, 2018) and is a promising approach for consideration as an effective trauma-focused treatment modality to meet the specific needs of military service members and veterans who have either never received treatment and or who have treatment-refractory PTSD (Kip et al, 2019;Kip & Diamond, 2018). Thus, the present analysis examines the results of ART used in the treatment of military-related PTSD, with stratification by prior PTSD treatment history, including refractory PTSD following receipt of first-line recommended psychotherapy.…”

Moving Forward: New frontiers in treatments for psychological trauma

“…This special section of Counselling and Psychotherapy Research is in the enviable position of being able to showcase some of these cutting edge approaches to working with psychological trauma. The first paper by Kip and Finnegan () introduces a therapeutic approach called Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), a brief intervention protocol that is showing promising early results, particularly with military veterans suffering from PTSD and co‐morbid traumatic brain injury (TBI). This approach may particularly spark interest in its prospects, as individuals with TBI generally receive a poorer prognosis regarding PTSD recovery than those without a TBI (Vanderploeg, Belanger, & Curtiss, ).…”