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Cognitive–behavioural therapy for complex post-traumatic stress disorder

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 August 2024

Beena Rajkumar Open the ORCID record for Beena Rajkumar [Opens in a new window]
Beena Rajkumar*
Affiliation:
Consultant psychiatrist and medical psychotherapist with Lincolnshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust (LPFT), Lincoln, UK. She has worked in in-patient women's services for 11 years and is currently a member of a community mental health team. As a medical psychotherapist she uses CBT to work with people who have experienced complex trauma. She is Director of Medical Education for LPFT and Medical Students Tutor for Lincoln Medical School, University of Lincoln.
*
Correspondence Beena Rajkumar. Email: beena.rajkumar@nhs.net
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Summary

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) was adopted as a new diagnosis in ICD-11. Trauma-focused cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) is effective in treating PTSD but with CPTSD being a recently defined diagnosis, the evidence for its effectiveness in that disorder is not as clear, but it is still promising. This article reviews the diagnosis, psychopathology and some key differential diagnoses, and looks at the two CBT approaches that are currently used in clinical practice: the phase-oriented approach and the unimodal approach. The key aims of this article are to clarify the concept of CPTSD, its differentiation from borderline personality disorder and prominent comorbidities, how it develops and how CBT is used to treat it.

Keywords

Trauma and stressor-related disorderschildhood experiencepersonality disorderscomplex traumapsychological treatment options
Type
Article
Information
BJPsych Advances , First View , pp. 1 - 10
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Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal College of Psychiatrists

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