Trauma and stressor related disorders

Research and further reading

A few key papers behind how this condition is understood and treated today. Links open the abstract on PubMed, a free public database from the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

• Pragmatic Comparative Effectiveness of Primary Care Treatments for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Clinical Trial

  Fortney et al. · JAMA Psychiatry · 2025

  In a trial of 700 primary care patients, SSRIs including sertraline, fluoxetine, and paroxetine and brief written exposure therapy both produced meaningful PTSD symptom improvement with no clear difference between them at four months, and switching to venlafaxine helped patients who had not responded to an SSRI.

• Antidepressants in the acute treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder in adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

  Guidetti et al. · International Clinical Psychopharmacology · 2025

  Across 29 antidepressant trials with 4575 adults, antidepressants showed modest benefit for PTSD symptoms, with paroxetine studies in the moderate range and sertraline studies in the small range.

• Factors impacting prazosin efficacy for nightmares and insomnia in PTSD patients - a systematic review and meta-regression analysis

  Mendes et al. · Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry · 2025

  Across ten randomized trials, prazosin meaningfully eased nightmares and insomnia in PTSD but not overall symptom severity, and patients taking benzodiazepines at the same time seemed to benefit more.

• Combining Ketamine Infusions and Written Exposure Therapy for Chronic PTSD: An Open-Label Trial

  Feder et al. · J Clin Psychiatry · 2025

  Pairing a short course of ketamine infusions with written exposure therapy produced large and lasting symptom improvements in a small group of adults with severe chronic PTSD, though larger controlled trials are still needed.

• Psychological Interventions for Pediatric Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review and Network Meta-Analysis

  Hoppen et al. · JAMA Psychiatry · 2025

  A network meta analysis of 70 randomized trials found trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapies produced the largest PTSD symptom reductions in children and teens, with benefits holding through two years of follow up.

• Psychosocial interventions for posttraumatic stress disorder in low- and middle-income countries: a Bayesian meta-analysis

  Leithner et al. · Psychological Medicine · 2026

  A Bayesian meta analysis of 55 trials found psychosocial interventions strongly reduced PTSD symptoms in adults in lower income countries, with trauma focused treatments working best as first line care.

• Doubly Randomized Preference Trial of Prolonged Exposure Versus Sertraline for Treatment of PTSD

  Zoellner et al. · Am J Psychiatry · 2019

  Both prolonged exposure therapy and sertraline produced large lasting improvements in PTSD symptoms, and patients who received the treatment they preferred did better overall.

• Combining seeking safety with sertraline for PTSD and alcohol use disorders: A randomized controlled trial

  Hien et al. · J Consult Clin Psychol · 2015

  Adding sertraline to Seeking Safety therapy led to greater and longer lasting reduction in PTSD symptoms than therapy with placebo, in people with both PTSD and alcohol use disorder.

• Pharmacotherapy for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)

  Williams et al. · Cochrane Database Syst Rev · 2026

  Across 66 trials, SSRIs improved PTSD symptoms more than placebo with moderate certainty evidence, while dropout rates from side effects stayed low at about 9 percent.

• Efficacy and tolerability of brexpiprazole augmentation of SSRI therapy in PTSD: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

  Kotochinsky et al. · J Psychiatr Res · 2026

  Adding brexpiprazole to an SSRI lowered clinician rated PTSD symptoms across four trials, though it also raised weight and sleepiness, with no overall rise in total side effects.