Prolonged Exposure Therapy for Adolescents with PTSD: Emotional Processing of Traumatic Experiences

Prolonged exposure for adolescents (PE-A; Foa et al., Prolonged exposure therapy for adolescents with PTSD: emotional processing of traumatic experiences. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2008) is a manualized treatment designed to target PTSD symptoms in the aftermath of all types of trauma. PE-A was developed and tested with adolescents aged 12–18 and includes four phases (pretreatment preparation, psychoeducation and treatment planning, exposures, and relapse prevention/treatment termination), each comprised of several modules that emphasize a specific therapeutic task or goal. It is delivered in an individual format and is intended to be flexible (with optional inclusion of parents/caregivers in portions of sessions, varied lengths of sessions, and ability to complete a single module over one or several sessions based on the developmental needs of the adolescent). The typical course of treatment occurs over 10–15 weekly sessions of 60- to 90-min length. Studies of PE-A have demonstrated its effectiveness in comparison to other active treatments and although further research is needed, the evidence to date supports the notion that PE-A can and should be considered a first-line treatment for PTSD in adolescents.