A Comparison of the Efficacy of Physical Activity and Psychotropics as Adjunctive Treatments to Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

The following thesis is concerned with assessing the relative efficacy of physical activity (PA) compared to pharmacotherapy in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) to support the argument that PA should be utilized as a first-line adjunctive treatment before resorting to pharmacotherapy. A theoretical quantitative quasi-experimental pre-test post-test randomized no-controlled trial was used to assess residual between-group mean change scores on PTSD symptomatology. Researchers proposed the random assignment of (N = 70) participants to two experimental groups: the psychotherapy plus PA and the psychotherapy plus the selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) paroxetine 35 mgs once daily groups. Primary outcome measures will be assessed using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale-5 (CAPS-5), secondary outcome measures will be assessed using the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and adverse secondary effects will be assessed using the UKU side effect rating scale (UKUSERS-Clin). Between-group residual mean differences for primary and secondary outcome measures will be assessed using independent samples t-test; allowing researchers to determine if the difference between the residual mean scores is significant.