The influence of posttraumatic stress disorder treatment on anxiety sensitivity: Impact of prolonged exposure, sertraline, and their combination.

ABSTRACT: Trauma-informed beliefs often decrease during posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment. This may also extend to anxiety sensitivity (AS), defined as a fear of anxiety-related sensations and beliefs that anxiety is dangerous and/or intolerable. However, little is known about how AS changes during exposure-based and psychopharmacological PTSD treatments. Further, high AS may be a risk factor for diminished PTSD symptom improvement and increased treatment dropout. To better understand how AS impacts and is impacted by PTSD treatment, we conducted a secondary analysis of a randomized clinical trial with a sample of 223 veterans (87.0% male, 57.5% White) with PTSD from four U.S. sites. Veterans were randomized to receive prolonged exposure (PE) plus placebo (n = 74), sertraline plus enhan

SUBMITTER: Luciano MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9974893 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature