A systematic review of written exposure therapy for the treatment of posttraumatic stress symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: Written exposure therapy (WET) is a brief treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), with an increasing number of studies published over the past several years. The current study conducted a systematic review to evaluate the current state of evidence for WET as a treatment for PTSD symptom severity. METHOD: Four databases were searched: PsycInfo, PTSDpubs, MEDLINE, and PubMed. Inclusion criteria included a peer-reviewed study of WET, a PTSD treatment outcome measure at pre- and posttreatment, and full-text available in English. RESULTS: range = 0.01-0.31). Dropout rates for WET were generally low, and less when compared with other trauma-focused treatments. CONCLUSIONS: The published studies indicate that WET is an efficacious and effective treatment for PTSD symptoms across a variety of samples, settings, and counties. Future work in this area should include investigation of the implementation and dissemination of WET. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).