Acceptability and Feasibility of Telehealth Delivered Written Exposure Therapy with College Students

Abstract

Full and subthreshold presentations of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are both functionally impairing and chronic. Therefore, development of feasible and acceptable treatments for both is imperative. Written Exposure Therapy (WET), a brief five-session in-person PTSD treatment, has the potential to be successfully administered accessibly via a telehealth format due to minimal therapist contact and short duration of treatment. This study explored the feasibility and acceptability of WET delivered via a telehealth format to college students experiencing posttraumatic stress symptoms. Participants (N = 4) were college students who were impacted by at least one traumatic event and had associated posttraumatic stress symptoms and functional impairment. All participants received five sessions of telehealth delivered WET. Participants also completed interviews and/or self-report measures at baseline, interim (after the 3rd therapy session), posttreatment, and at one-month follow up. The assessments measured trauma-specific and related symptoms as well as acceptability and feasibility ratings of the program. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics to explore recruitment and retention, satisfaction with the treatment, technology, and working alliance. Reliable change scores were calculated to explore clinically significant changes in psychiatric symptoms.