The Impact of Childhood Abuse Among Women With Assault‐Related PTSD Receiving Short‐Term Cognitive–Behavioral Therapy

This study examined the effect of child sexual or physical abuse on brief cognitive–behavioral therapy treatments with adults with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We analyzed secondary data from two randomized controlled trials (Resick, Nishith, Weaver, Astin, & Feuer, 2002; Resick et al., 2008) that included women with PTSD who did or did not have child sexual abuse (CSA) or child physical abuse (CPA) histories to determine whether childhood abuse impacted dropout rate or reduction in PTSD symptoms. In Study 1, presence, duration, or severity of CSA was not associated with dropout; however, frequency of CSA significantly predicted dropout (OR = 1.23). A significant CPA Severity × Treatment Group interaction emerged such that CPA severity was associated with greater dropout for prolonged exposure (PE; OR = 1.45), but not cognitive processing therapy (CPT; OR = 0.90). Study 2 found no differences in dropout. Study 1, comparing CPT and PE among women who experienced at least 1 rape found no differences in outcome based on childhood abuse history (r_p²s = .000–.009). Study 2, a dismantling study of CPT with women seeking treatment for adult or child sexual or physical abuse found that for those with no childhood abuse, CPT‐C, the cognitive‐only version of CPT, had an advantage, whereas both forms of CPT worked best for those with higher frequency of childhood abuse; the effect size was small.