Seeking safety”: Outcome of a new cognitivebehavioral psychotherapy for women with posttraumatic stress disorder and substance dependence

Women with current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) comprise 30-59% of substance abuse treatment samples and experience a more severe course than women with either disorder alone. As yet, no effective treatment for this population has been identified. This paper reports outcome results on 17 women who completed a new manual-based 24-session cognitive behavioral group therapy protocol treatment, based on assessments at pretreatment, during treatment, posttreatment, and at 3-month follow-up. Results showed significant improvements in substance use, trauma-related symptoms, suicide risk, suicidal thoughts, social adjustment, family functioning, problem solving, depression, cognitions about substance use, and didactic knowledge related to the treat-ment. Patients ' treatment attendance, alliance, and satisfaction were also very strong. Treatment completers were more impaired than dropouts, yet more en-gaged in the treatment. Overall, our data suggest that women with PTSD and substance abuse can be helped when provided with a treatment designed for them. All results are clearly tentative, however, due to the lack of a control group, multiple comparisons, and absence of assessment of dropouts. KEY WORDS: posttraumatic stress disorder; trauma; substance abuse; addiction; psychotherapy; group treatment