14 DAY TRIAL // Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) investigators were able to determine in a recent study that the efficiency of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatments can be significantly improved by addressing the accompanying symptoms of depression as well.
The team learned that rapidly addressing these symptoms can lead to much faster improvements in PTSD results within just a short time frame. Researchers say that depression care has to stop being ignored when treating the stress disorder; the two should rather be treated together.
CWRU experts also argue that family members who use expressions such as “just get over it” and “toughen up” may actually do more harm than good to PTSD patients. This advice can easily lead to a transient increase in depression, further accentuating the stress disorder.
The new research, published in the latest issue of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, is among the first papers ever written on the direct link between the development of depression and the progression patterns of PTSD, PsychCentral reports.