Therapeutic intensification in post-traumatic stress disorder worldwide: where do we stand?

Background

First-line treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are trauma-focused psychotherapies. To overcome the limitations of these approaches, intensive and massed programmes have shown promising outcomes.

Objective

To provide a structured narrative literature review on recent advances in intensive and massed programmes for psychological trauma over the past five years.

Methods

All clinical studies investigating massed or intensive therapies were included, including qualitative research.

Results

Two main approaches of intensive or massed programmes have emerged, mainly in North America and Europe. These two models differ in their modalities (individual vs. group-based interventions) and in the extent of validation across diverse populations. Across the two approaches, both therapeutic alliance and trauma-related negative cognitions predict treatment response.

Conclusion

Current evidence supports the continued use of intensive and massed programmes and underscores the need to further develop and refine them to address existing limitations.