Treatment

Following assessment and diagnosis, your doctor will work out a suitable treatment plan for you.  You may be prescribed medication and/or psychotherapy to treat your PTSD.

If you have experienced major trauma, but not yet developed post-traumatic symptoms, your doctor may recommend preventive treatment with a beta-blocker such as propranolol.  Trauma-focused CBT can also help to prevent the emergence of chronic PTSD in some people.

For the acute treatment of chronic PTSD, antidepressants, especially SSRIs but including TCAs, are often prescribed.  However, PTSD can be quite resistant to treatments and is often complicated by their side-effects.

It is unlikely that benzodiazepines will be prescribed, particularly if a patient has a comorbid alcohol/substance use disorder.  This is because there could be a high risk of benzodiazepine abuse and dependence.  Benzodiazepines also seem to worsen the outcome of PTSD.

Trauma-focused CBT is the treatment most likely to be prescribed if psychotherapy is recommended.  In this treatment you will be asked to relive aspects of the trauma in a safe setting and the therapist will help you overcome the anxiety that emerges. This is repeated for a number of sessions so that you gradually become less anxious and learn how to control PTSD symptoms.  For most patients, the combination of SSRIs and CBT are most effective in reducing post-traumatic and symptoms.

The Treatments section will give you more detailed information on individual types of medication, psychotherapy and physical treatments.