Treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Evaluating outcome with a behavioral code.
A simple body-movement code showed imaginal flooding calmed a PTSD veteran and still guides exposure tweaks today.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One combat veteran with PTSD met the therapist weekly.
The man told his war story again and again while the therapist watched.
Each retell was filmed. A simple code counted how much his body moved.
What they found
Big body jumps and shakes faded fast.
Six months later the calm held and daily life was better.
The code showed the change in real numbers.
How this fits with other research
Grindle et al. (2012) kept the imaginal part and added mood work.
Their vets also got better, showing the core idea still works.
Sasson et al. (2022) used the same one-person tracking but added brief mindfulness.
Some clients improved, some did not, proving you must watch each case.
All three studies count behavior during exposure; the 1983 paper started the habit.
Why it matters
You can copy the cheap code today.
Film any exposure session and score body movement for five minutes.
If the score drops week to week, stay the course.
If not, tweak the scene or add mood skills like F et al. did.
One veteran, one sheet of paper, one clear signal — no fancy gear needed.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) often show intense levels of anxiety when exposed to stimuli associated with the precipitating traumatic incident. Recent advances in the treatment of PTSD have emphasized the importance of providing imaginal exposure to the traumatic memories. Assessment of treatment efficacy, therefore, can include psychophysiological, self-report (cognitive), and behavioral (motoric) measures obtained during the exposure treatments. To date, very little work has been conducted on the development and evaluation of behavioral indexes of intense anxiety during imaginal exposure to traumatic memories. The subject of the study was a 32-year-old Vietnam combat veteran with PTSD. Motoric behavior was assessed by independent observers during behavioral treatment sessions that consisted of separate components of imaginal exposure to nontraumatic (relaxing) and traumatic (flooding) cues. Gross motoric arousal during exposure dramatically decreased from preto posttreatment and at the 6-month follow-up. These changes were associatead with improvement in several areas of general life functioning and self-monitoring data, thus supporting the utility of imaginal flooding in the treatment of PTSD and the potential for this behavioral code in the assessment of intense anxiety disorders.
Behavior modification, 1983 · doi:10.1177/01454455830074005