A New Appraisal of Combined Treatments for PTSD in the Era of Psychotherapy Adjunctive Medications

Combinations of pharmacologic and psychosocial interventions have garnered much enthusiasm over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, this enthusiasm is often disproportionate to the empirical support for these approaches. However, a new wave of basic, translational, and clinical research has demonstrated that the use of some substances—themselves having little to no therapeutic benefit—may help to increase or potentiate the effectiveness of certain psychological treatments. While these drugs have shown promise in the treatment of other anxiety disorders, they have yet to be thoroughly studied in PTSD populations. This article will describe the movement towards the use of pharmacologic substances as adjuncts to psychotherapy and will describe the rationale, initial support, implications, and future directions of their use in the treatment of PTSD.