PsiAN Issues Comment to the APA Regarding PTSD Guidelines

PsiAN issued a comment to the American Psychological Association (APA) regarding the Guideline Update Panel's (GUP) proposed framework for updating the PTSD guidelines, first published in 2017. 

When the Guidelines were first published, we wrote a petition, Protect PTSD Treatments that Work!  It was signed by over 57,000 clinicians and invested members of the public, bringing significant attention to the narrowly defined criteria APA was using to write its guidelines. 

We have focused on GUP's misapplication of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) and APA's definition of evidence-based practice, exclusive use of meta-data, and the failure to include research studies from the last five years.  We have also expressed deep concern about its failure to consider the high drop-out rates from exposure-based therapies; although exposure-based therapies have been frequently studied, they have not been successful in reducing suffering from PTSD.  In addition, we've pointed out that the timing of the updates misses many studies in the pipeline, including psychodynamic RCT research, that are in process or not yet published but are yielding promising outcomes.

April 2023