State of the Science: Written Exposure Therapy for the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

Although there are effective psychotherapies available for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), brief treatments for PTSD are needed to expand the reach of treatment. Written exposure therapy (WET) is a brief treatment that has the potential to fill an important need in PTSD treatment and has a rapidly expanding evidence base to support its use. In this paper we provide information on how WET was developed, and we present proposed underlying mechanisms of the treatment and evidence supporting the underlying mechanism. The current evidence supporting WET for the treatment of PTSD is reviewed. The evidence indicates that WET is an efficacious and effective treatment approach for PTSD and is noninferior to more time-intensive evidence-based treatments for PTSD. The paper concludes with suggestions for expanding the evidence base of WET that is necessary for it to be considered a first-line treatment approach across clinical practice guidelines.