Psyc E-1014 Optional Extra Credit Assignment

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Psyc E-1014 Optional Extra Credit Assignment

This optional extra credit assignment is due by Wednesday April 18th at 5:30pm and worth a total of 3 possible points added to your final grade. The goal of this assignment is to learn more about an up-and-coming PTSD treatment approach (Written Exposure Therapy, WET), the stepped-care model of treatment for PTSD, and case study research methodology.

To complete this assessment, please read the following article (available on Canvas) and answer the questions below.

Austern, D.J. (2017). Written Exposure Therapy as step one in reducing the burden of PTSD: The Composite Cases of “Alex,” “Bruno,” and “Charles,” Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy, 2(1), p82-141.

Given that this is a lengthy article, you may opt to skim two of the case examples and read at least one of them fully.

Fun fact: from 2014-2016, Sarah Kleiman was a therapist and Sarah Williston was a diagnostic assessor for the clinical trial comparing WET versus CPT mentioned briefly on p 91-92, the results of which were recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) Psychiatry.

  1. In your own words, what is Written Exposure Therapy (WET)? How does WET differ from the Empirically-Based Treatments (EBTs) we have discussed in class (i.e., Cognitive Processing Therapy, CPT, and Prolonged Exposure, PE)? Briefly describe potential advantages and disadvantages of WET compared to CPT and PE.
  • In your own words, what is the stepped care method of treatment delivery? What are some advantages of the stepped care model of PTSD treatment demonstrated by the case examples? What might be some potential disadvantages of the stepped care model compared to beginning with PE or CPT as the initial treatment approach?
  • In what ways do the case examples of either “Alex,” “Bruno,” or “Charles” reflect the difficulty many people with PTSD have tolerating and engaging in trauma-focused treatment (especially exposure based treatment)?
  • Please share any other reactions you have to reading this article, and any questions that arose for you as you read it.

If you have extra time, you may enjoy reading the following article (available on Canvas), in which the creators of WET comment on Austern (2017)’s implementation of WET in the 3 case examples:

Sloan, D.M., & Marx, B.P. (2017). Commentary on “Written Exposure Therapy as Step One in Reducing the Burden of PTSD: The Composite Cases of “Alex,” “Bruno,” and “Charles”” – On the Implementation of Written Exposure Therapy (WET) with Veterans Diagnosed with PTSD, Pragmatic Case Studies in Psychotherapy, 13 (2), p154-164.