Individual treatment selection for patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: External validation of a personalised advantage index

Abstract

Objective: To test the predictive accuracy and generalisability of a personalised advantage index (PAI) model designed to support treatment selection for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Method: A PAI model developed by Deisenhofer et al. (2018) was used to predict treatment outcomes in a statistically independent dataset including archival records for N = 152 patients with PTSD who accessed either trauma-focussed cognitive behavioural therapy or eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing in routine care. Outcomes were compared between patients who received their PAI-indicated optimal treatment versus those who received their suboptimal treatment. Results: The model did not yield treatment specific predictions and patients who had received their PAI-indicated optimal treatment did not have better treatment outcomes in this external validation sample. Conclusion: This PAI model did not generalise to an external validation sample.