Effectiveness of accelerated posttraumatic stress disorder treatment: Comparative results for sexual and gender minority and non-sexual and gender minority military populations.

The aim of this exploratory study was to compare posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and depression symptom reductions immediately after conclusion of treatment and 3 months following a 2-week accelerated inperson treatment between service members and veterans who identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ), and their non-LGBTQ military peers.This study hypothesized there would not be differences in PTSD or depression symptom outcomes between groups.Data were collected from 663 service members and veterans who completed a 2-week cognitive processing therapy-based accelerated PTSD treatment program.Participants completed the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth ed., and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 at pretreatment, during treatment, posttreatment, and at 3-month follow-up.A Bayes factor approach assessed the equivalence of PTSD and depression symptom outcomes between groups.There were reductions in PTSD and depression symptoms for both LGBTQ (d 5 1.62, d 5 0.96) and non-LGBTQ service members and veterans (d 5 1.30, d 5 1.17).The data supported the hypothesis that LGBTQ and non-LGBTQ groups were equivalent in both PTSD (10-point margins for PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fifth ed.) and depressive symptom (5-point margins for Patient Health Questionnaire-9) outcomes over time.In this sample, evidencebased accelerated treatment was demonstrated to be an effective method for improving PTSD and depression symptoms for military service members and veterans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.Future research is needed to replicate these results, which offer preliminary evidence that affirming and culturally responsive care can be embedded into traditional evidence-based care, potentially without modifying manualized treatment protocols, while maintaining highly effective results. Public Significance StatementThe current study found that an accelerated, evidence-based posttraumatic stress disorder treatment led to large and prolonged reductions in posttraumatic stress disorder and depression symptoms in one sample of military service members and veterans, with equally strong outcomes for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer and non-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer participants.These findings are important because they show that standard, well-established treatments, such as cognitive processing therapy, can effectively support mental health recovery across diverse identities and that affirming care can be integrated into existing approaches, which in turn promotes equity in access to effective treatment.