What's in a treatment name? How people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms interpret and react to PTSD treatment names

Abstract

Prior research has rarely examined how people understand or react to the names of psychological treatments. In the case of evidence‐based psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), such reactions may be relevant to the low rates of uptake of such treatments. Participants who screened positive for PTSD (n = 887) completed questions assessing their initial reactions to PTSD treatment names as well as how a different name would affect their openness to treatment. In addition, they gave brief responses to open‐ended questions about the reason for their initial reactions, and content analysis was used to better understand these reasons. The results indicated that among the treatment name options, cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and present‐centered therapy (PCT) were viewed most positively. Approximately 40% of the sample preferred plain language alternatives for treatment names. Content analyses focused on descriptions of the treatments—which could be accurate or inaccurate—as well as whether respondents evaluated a treatment name itself as positive or negative. Some names conveyed treatments more accurately (e.g., CPT and written exposure therapy) than others (e.g., eye movement desensitization and reprocessing and prolonged exposure [PE]). Some names were also evaluated more positively (e.g., PCT) than others (e.g., PE). The general term “trauma‐focused therapy” was seen as positive and clear. Addressing the ways patients react to psychological terms and treatment names could help clarify misperceptions about evidence‐based psychotherapies and promote more widespread uptake of effective treatments for PTSD.