Effectiveness of Cognitive Processing Therapy among Patients With Comorbidity of Alcohol Use Disorders and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: An Intervention Study of Rehabilitation Centres in Nairobi and Its Environs

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to establish whether treating PTSD with cognitive processing therapy (CPT) in AUD patients reduces PTSD symptoms consequently reducing relapse. Quasi-experimental design was applied with experimental and control arms. A total of 123 respondents participated: 63 in the experimental group and 60 in the control group, and consecutive sampling technique was used. Posttraumatic stress disorder checklist (PCL-5) was used at baseline, midline, and endline. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to summarize the findings. QQ Plots and Shapiro-Wilk’s test were used to assess for normality of the data. Paired T-test and repeated measures ANOVA were used to test efficacy of CPT in reducing symptoms of relapse. The study was done in rehabilitation centres in Nairobi and its environs The participants were followed at three months after treatment and discharge to check for relapse tendencies. At the end of the treatment, there was a significant reduction in PCL mean score from 38.33 to 21.46 in the group treated with CPT. In contrast, the control group showed a slight increase in mean scores from 46.98 at baseline to 48.48 at the endline. The number of respondents in the experimental group who relapsed into alcohol use were 31.7% while in the control group they were 61.7%. There was a statistically significant difference between the two groups (p=<0.0001). The findings showed that the integration of CPT with the traditional addiction treatment approach for AUD was effective in the reduction of PTSD symptoms. CPT was also associated with higher reduction of depressive symptoms and incidences of relapse of alcohol use for respondents in the experimental group compared to those in the control group by the third month post discharge. The researcher recommends that it should be mandated in policy that assessment for PTSD and use of CPT be incorporated into the treatment modalities for AUD in rehabilitation centres in Kenya.