Written Exposure Therapy to Prevent PTSD in Survivors of Acute Cardiovascular Events: A Pilot Randomized Clinical Trial

Experiencing a life threatening cardiovascular event, such as a stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), acute coronary syndrome (ACS), or cardiac arrest has been found to be associated with PTSD symptoms in up to 1 in 3 survivors. Patients with elevated PTSD symptoms are at risk for lower medication adherence, increased readmissions, recurrent cardiovascular events, and worsened quality of life. Risk for recurrent cardiovascular events is especially high in the initial weeks after acute cardiovascular events, and existing epidemiological data suggest that PTSD symptoms increase this risk. Thus, intervening early to prevent PTSD symptoms prior to waiting the full one or more months to make a PTSD diagnosis may provide new opportunities for offsetting cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Despite these adverse consequence of cardiovascular event-induced PTSD, these patients are not currently being systematically screened or treated to prevent PTSD symptoms, in part because there is no evidence assessing the effect of early interventions in this patient population.

A growing number of studies have been evaluating early interventions after trauma to prevent PTSD. While there is no gold-standard intervention, psychological interventions grounded in trauma-focused, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) have shown promise in some populations. For example, compared to a supportive counseling control condition, CBT has been found to reduce PTSD symptom severity and incidence in individuals with acute stress disorder (ASD), an early manifestation of posttraumatic stress, detected within the first month of a traumatic event. Preliminary research suggests that an exposure-based CBT intervention delivered in the immediate aftermath of trauma for individuals meeting Criterion A of a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition (DSM-IV) PTSD diagnosis may also hold promise for PTSD prevention. Acute cardiovascular events such as stroke and ACS as the source of trauma are inherently different from other forms of stressors that commonly lead to PTSD. As opposed to an external and past traumatic threat (e.g., combat, physical/emotional abuse), these events can represent an ongoing internal somatic threat. Accordingly, treatments for preventing PTSD such as the trauma-focused CBT interventions discussed above need to be formally evaluated in this distinct patient population before generalizing the findings from other patient populations. In particular, the willingness to engage in therapies to prevent or reduce PTSD symptoms may differ in this patient population. Few of these patients are actively seeking treatment. Many may not be aware of potential psychological symptoms that can begin or worsen after these events and may not perceive their psychological symptoms to be problematic. Hence, the acceptability of psychological interventions is particularly relevant in this patient population.

Written exposure therapy represents a promising intervention to prevent PTSD after cardiovascular events. Written exposure therapy is a brief exposure-based therapy, founded on the principles of Pennebaker and Beale's written disclosure procedure. The treatment protocol consists of 5 sessions, each comprising 30 minutes of writing. In each session, participants are instructed to write about their memory of the traumatic event with particular attention to the felt emotions and the meaning of the event. The initial session also incorporates psychoeducation and review of the rationale for the intervention by a study clinician. Sessions end with therapists' discussing how the writing session went. The rationale behind this exposure therapy is that there is a significant habituation of emotional reactivity to reminders of the traumatic event over repeated writing sessions. Consistent with this rationale, research suggests that these exposure writing sessions are associated with greater initial emotional and physiological reactivity and greater habituation of these responses over time compared to a control writing condition. A recent study showed that this brief psychotherapy approach was non-inferior to a more extensive CBT approach (cognitive processing therapy) for reducing PTSD symptoms in adults with PTSD. Written exposure therapy has also been shown to be effective at lowering PTSD symptoms in patients with motor vehicle accident-induced PTSD.

In contrast with more standard CBT interventions, written exposure therapy was designed to create a more acceptable exposure-based treatment option for PTSD that is easily disseminated and implemented. Like the promising trauma-focused CBT interventions for PTSD prevention, it is also exposure-based. In light of these qualities, written exposure therapy thus may be ideally suited for reducing PTSD symptoms in non-treatment seeking survivors of acute cardiovascular events. Key differences between written exposure therapy and other CBT approaches to treating PTSD include a lower frequency of sessions (~5) and no homework requirement, resulting in higher treatment completion compared to a more rigorous exposure-based therapy approach. Other advantages of written exposure therapy are that it requires a lower level of training from clinicians and less clinician time, which could facilitate dissemination.