Contemporary research on and scientifically based psychotherapeutic methods of treating PTSD in adults

Abstract

The article offers a systematic review of foreign investigations into posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for the past twenty years as well as the findings of the research into the drug-free treatment of PTSD in the light of an extensive systematic review of the scientific literature of the World Health Organization (WHO). The article presents the results of the investigations into the risk factors, the prognoses, the statistical data on the prevalence of PTSD, and the diagnostic criteria of PTSD according to ICD-11 and DSM-V, including the relevant and the most recent investigations into the PTSD and Complex PTSD (ICD-11). As a result of the review, two scientifically proven effective methods of the drug-free treatment of PTSD have been revealed: Trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT), EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) as well as cognitive or behavioural stress management techniques that do not focus on trauma.

Keywords

• posttraumatic stress disorder (ptsd) and complex ptsd
• the systematic reviews ptsd
• psychological interventions for adult ptsd
• trauma-focused cbt (tf cbt) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (emdr)
• scientifically proven methods of treating ptsd in adults