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Specialized Cognitive Behavioral Treatment
available for people with PTSD and serious
Mental Illness
Newswise — Sufferers of post
traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are
receiving specialized treatment from UMDNJ-University
Behavioral HealthCare as a part of a
National Institute of Mental Health study in
collaboration with Dartmouth Medical School
whose researchers adapted the treatment for
people with serious mental illness.
Steven Silverstein, Ph.D.,
director and Stephanie Marcello, Ph.D., both
of the Division of Schizophrenia Research,
are implementing the new therapy, which is
based on principles of cognitive behavior
therapy.
The treatment process
includes relaxation training, helpful
information about how stress causes the
symptoms, and “cognitive restructuring” or
techniques that people learn to help replace
anxiety-arousing thoughts with more
realistic appraisals about themselves and
the level of danger in their environments.
Treatment is
closely coordinated with clients’
clinicians.
UMDNJ is the first
institution outside of Dartmouth Medical
School to offer this new treatment to
mentally ill patients in a culturally
diverse urban environment.
All the patients in the study
come from UMDNJ community mental health
centers in New Brunswick, South Brunswick,
Piscataway, and Newark.
According to Marcello, close
to 60 percent of people with highly
symptomatic PTSD also suffer from serious
mental illness (SMI) such as major
depression, bipolar disorder or
schizophrenia.
Researchers have found that
for people with major mental illness and
severe PTSD, the post traumatic stress
symptoms rarely go away on their own, which
justifies the need for “very specialized
treatment,” such as the cognitive behavioral
therapy.
“We want people suffering
from PTSD to realize there are treatment
options available,” she said, adding that as
the program develops, more clinicians will
be trained in the therapy methods.
Marcello describes the
therapy as “the first treatment developed
for this dually diagnosed - PTSD and SMI -
population.” Marcello and Silverstein are in
the second year of a four-year clinical
trial of the therapy.
Currently, 75 patients are
enrolled in the program. Their goal is to
treat 200 people during the course of the
trial.
Participants must be an
outpatient or partial program participant at
any of the UMDNJ Community Health Centers
where trained clinicians and weekly
supervision is available.
The University of Medicine
and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) is the
nation’s largest free-standing public health
sciences university with more than 5,600
students attending the state's three medical
schools, its only dental school, a graduate
school of biomedical sciences, a school of
health related professions, a school of
nursing and its only school of public health
on five campuses.
Annually, there are more than
two million patient visits at UMDNJ
facilities and faculty practices at campuses
in Newark, New Brunswick/Piscataway, Scotch
Plains, Camden and Stratford. UMDNJ operates
University Hospital, a Level I Trauma Center
in Newark, and University Behavioral
HealthCare, a statewide mental health and
addiction services network.
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