Meta-Analysis of Counseling Outcomes for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

This meta-analysis of 152 published posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clinical trials from 1990 to 2012 concluded that counseling generally produced a small to large effect of treatment across all comparison conditions at termination (d+ = 0.30 to 0.89). These gains were maintained at longest follow-up (d+ = 0.58 to 0.86) for the wait-list, treatment-as-usual, and single-group comparisons, but not for the follow-up placebo comparison (d+ = 0.15), probably because of the low power (j = 3 placebo studies). Clinical trial findings were synthesized using a random-effects model. No effects of publication bias or moderating variables were evident. No difference was found between trauma-focused and non-trauma-focused approaches. Implications for counseling practice and future PTSD outcome research are addressed.