Couples' therapies can improve clinical outcomes of patients with post-traumatic stress disorder: meta-analysis of eighteen clinical studies.

IF 3 3区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, MULTIDISCIPLINARY

BMC Psychology Pub Date : 2025-10-09 DOI:10.1186/s40359-025-03464-8

Yu-Ting Tao, Jin Xie, Hua-Ling Jiang, Teng-Yu Gao, Xin Liu, Chao Zhang, Ling Yang

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Background: Partners play an important role in a couple's life, and the whole family may face various challenges when meeting post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This study aimed to explore the therapeutic effect of couples' therapies for PTSD.

Methods: This study obtained relevant data from databases including Ovid Medline(R) ALL, Ovid Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, and American Psychological Association PsycInfo until July 03, 2025.

Results: The couples' therapies showed an adherence rate (Proportion = 69%, 95%CI: 64% to 73%). Comparing with before couples' therapies, there were significant improvement in for patients (SMD = -0.79, 95%CI: -1.13 to -0.46) and for partners (SMD = -0.78, 95%CI: -1.05 to -0.52) after therapy, and there were significant improvement in intimate relationship functioning for patients (SMD = 0.27, 95%CI: 0.12 to 0.42) and partners (SMD = 0.38, 95%CI: 0.20 to 0.56), and in depression level for patients (SMD = -0.61, 95%CI: -0.82 to -0.40) and partners (SMD = -0.29, 95%CI: -0.50 to -0.07) after couples' therapies. Outcomes included comparisons with subgroup analysis which revealed that PTSD symptoms had better consequence for patients in age < 40 (SMD = -1.04, 95%CI: -1.93 to -0.16), male (SMD = -1.48, 95%CI: -1.95 to -1.01), and sessions ≥ 10 (SMD = -1.14, 95%CI: -1.53 to -0.74), trauma-focused (SMD = -1.17, 95%CI: -1.60 to -0.73), non-military personnel (SMD = -1.37, 95%CI: -1.94 to -0.79) and CBCT (SMD = -0.87, 95%CI: -1.24 to -0.49) had preferable outcomes for in PTSD symptoms.

Conclusions: This study demonstrated the improvement of couples' therapies in PTSD symptoms, intimate relationship functioning and depression level. It was also found that the adherence rate of couples' therapies for PTSD was higher in Males, and the PTSD symptoms showed more conspicuous improvement in patients younger than 40 years of age, males, longer sessions of therapy, trauma-focused and CBCT after couples' therapies.

Trial registration: The protocol of meta-analysis was available at the Open Science Framework ( https://osf.io/s39jn/ ).

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夫妻治疗可以改善创伤后应激障碍患者的临床结果：18项临床研究的荟萃分析。

背景：伴侣在夫妻生活中扮演着重要的角色，当遇到创伤后应激障碍（PTSD）时，整个家庭都可能面临各种挑战。本研究旨在探讨夫妻治疗PTSD的效果。方法：本研究从Ovid Medline(R) ALL、Ovid Embase、Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials、American Psychological Association PsycInfo等数据库获取截至2025年7月3日的相关数据。结果：夫妻治疗依从率（比例= 69%,95%CI: 64% ~ 73%）。与夫妻治疗前相比，治疗后患者（SMD = -0.79, 95%CI: -1.13 ~ -0.46）和伴侣（SMD = -0.78, 95%CI: -1.05 ~ -0.52）的亲密关系功能有显著改善，患者（SMD = 0.27, 95%CI: 0.12 ~ 0.42）和伴侣（SMD = 0.38, 95%CI: 0.20 ~ 0.56）和患者（SMD = -0.61, 95%CI: -0.82 ~ -0.40）和伴侣（SMD = -0.29, 95%CI: -0.29）的抑郁水平有显著改善。-0.50至-0.07)。结果包括与亚组分析的比较，结果显示PTSD症状对年龄较大的患者有更好的影响。结论：本研究证明夫妻治疗在PTSD症状、亲密关系功能和抑郁水平方面有改善。夫妻治疗后PTSD的依从率在男性中较高，年龄小于40岁、男性、治疗时间较长、创伤集中和CBCT治疗后PTSD症状改善更为显著。试验注册：meta分析方案可在开放科学框架（https://osf.io/s39jn/）上获得。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

BMC Psychology Psychology-Psychology (all)

CiteScore

3.90

自引率

2.80%

发文量

265

审稿时长

24 weeks

期刊介绍： BMC Psychology is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that considers manuscripts on all aspects of psychology, human behavior and the mind, including developmental, clinical, cognitive, experimental, health and social psychology, as well as personality and individual differences. The journal welcomes quantitative and qualitative research methods, including animal studies.