Treatment-related changes in cardiovascular reactivity to trauma cues in motor vehicle accident-related PTSD

We have conducted a randomized, controlled trial comparing a combination of cognitive and behavioral treatments (CBT), supportive psychotherapy (SUPPORT), or an assessment-only wait-list (WAITLIST) control. To study psychophysiological reactivity in PTSD we measured heart rate (HR) reactivity to idiosyncratic audiotaped descriptions of the motor vehicle accident (MVA) that the participants had survived, both before and after each of the treatments. Results showed significantly greater reduction in HR reactivity for those receiving CBT ( n = 25) than for either those in SUPPORT ( n = 26) or WAITLIST ( n = 22). The latter two conditions did not differ. There were significant but low-level correlations between changes in CAPS scores and changes in HR reactivity collapsing across all groups.