1. Written Exposure Therapy for Suicide in a Psychiatric Inpatient Unit: A Case Series
- Author
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Alexander M Kaplan, Brooke A Fina, Alan L. Peterson, Hannah Tyler, Craig J. Bryan, Denise M. Sloan, Vanessa R. Green, Stacey Young-McCaughan, Brian P. Marx, and Abby E. Blankenship
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,medicine.medical_treatment ,Exposure therapy ,Psychological intervention ,Service member ,Suicide prevention ,Unit (housing) ,Clinical Psychology ,Intervention (counseling) ,medicine ,medicine.symptom ,Psychology ,Psychiatry ,Psychosocial ,Suicidal ideation - Abstract
Patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are at an elevated risk of suicide. For patients hospitalized for suicide risk, psychosocial treatment and stabilization are routinely offered; however, the availability of evidence-based, manualized therapeutic interventions for PTSD is sparse. Typically, the short duration of hospitalization makes it difficult to accommodate evidence-based, trauma-focused treatments. This article presents the clinical course of four active-duty service members with PTSD who were hospitalized in a psychiatric inpatient unit for acute suicide risk and treated with Written Exposure Therapy for Suicide (WET-S). WET-S is a brief, five-session therapy based upon Written Exposure Therapy and augmented with Crisis Response Planning for Suicide Prevention. Both posttraumatic stress symptoms and suicidal ideation were reduced from pre- to posttreatment for three of the four patients treated. WET-S shows promise as a manualized therapeutic intervention that can be delivered on an inpatient psychiatric unit.
- Published
- 2022