Health-related quality of life trajectories as a function of PTSD treatment type and baseline PTSD symptoms

Research indicates that increased health-related quality of life (HRQoL) follows posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptom reduction. However, symptom recovery may differ between psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. This randomized control trial investigated the influence of treatment type (prolonged exposure therapy [PE] vs. sertraline) and pre-treatment PTSD symptoms on HRQoL trajectories up to three months post-treatment. Hierarchical linear modeling results suggest that pre-treatment HRQoL depends on pre-treatment PTSD symptoms. HRQoL trajectories differed between treatments, but not as a result of pre-treatment PTSD symptoms. PE led to greater HRQoL improvement from pre- to post-treatment than sertraline, but this improvement notably declined following PE