Effectiveness of Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment on the Rumination and Experiential Avoidance in Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Aims: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the prominent psychological consequences of war that is seen in veterans. Behavioral activation treatment is a short-term intervention that can target a range of disruptions to the disorder. The purpose of the present study was to investigate effectiveness of short-term behavioral activation therapy on the rumination and experimental avoidance of veterans with PTSD. Material & Methods: In this semi-experimental study with pretest-posttest design with control group, 40 veterans with PTSD who referred to Isar Ardabil psychiatric hospital in 2017 were selected through purposive sampling and randomaly assigned to two groups of experimental and control. The data were collected using a posttrumatic stress disorder checklist (military version), ruminal responses scale and acceptance and action questionnaire-II. Then, behavioral activation therapy were performed for 10 sessions (one hour in per session) for the experimental group. Data were analyzed by SPSS 23 using multiple covariance analysis. Finding: After controlling the effects of pretest, the mean scores of rumination (F=4.843; p= 0.035) and experiential avoidance (F=5.123; p= 0.030) were significantly higher in the experimental group than the control group. Conclusion: Training behavioral activation therapy reduces rumination and experiential avoidance of veterans with PTSD.

Keywords

• behavioral activation treatment
• experiential avoidance
• rumination
• stress disorders
• post-traumatic
• veterans