Symptom self-monitoring in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder

Patients suffering from chronic PTSD were recruited into a study in which they had to monitor and record in a diary their intrusive systems on a daily basis for 4 weeks. Assessments were carried out before and after monitoring. Seventeen patients dropped out of the study during the monitoring period, 12 patients no longer met criterion for PTSD, and 72 were still cases at the second assessment. A comparison of improvers, cases, and dropouts indicated that improvers scored significantly lower on all assessment measures prior to monitoring, and were more likely to be employed than the other two groups. Improvements made over the monitoring period were discussed.