ABSTRACT Objective Resilience is associated with lower post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) severity and may play a beneficial role in PTSD treatment. The present study explored if pre‐treatment resilience and changes in resilience during intensive treatment for PTSD were associated with PTSD and depression symptom change among veterans during and up to a year after treatment. Methods A total of 727 veterans (age: M = 45.1 years, SD = 10.3) participated in a 2‐week Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)‐based Intensive PTSD Treatment Program (ITP). Resilience was assessed at the start and end of the program, while PTSD and depression were assessed every other day of the program and 3‐, 6‐, and 12‐months post‐treatment. Results Veterans with higher pre‐treatment resilience tended to have lower PTSD ( b = −0.24, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.04) and depression severity ( b = −0.10, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.07) throughout the ITP. Pre‐treatment resilience was not associated with differing treatment trajectories for PTSD ( b = −0.01, p = 0.492) or depression ( b = −0.01, p = 0.184). Improvements in resilience from the beginning to end of treatment were associated with improvements in PTSD ( b = −0.24, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.02) and depression symptoms ( b = ‐0.10, p < 0.001, R 2 = 0.01). Pre‐treatment resilience was associated with PTSD severity 3‐ and 12‐months following treatment, and with depression severity 3‐ and 6‐months post‐treatment. Changes in resilience during treatment were associated with PTSD severity up to 1 year post‐treatment, and up to 3 months for depression severity. Conclusion The findings highlight that patients may experience similarly beneficial treatment trajectories regardless of their pre‐treatment resilience. This may offer hope to patients with lower resilience that they can still achieve meaningful PTSD and depression symptom reductions.
Ptak et al. (Sat,) studied this question.
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