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Imagery Rehearsal Therapy

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Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

In this era of empiric assessment of therapy results, the association between nightmares and PTSD has become even more important. Any therapy that reduces nightmare frequency and/or distress will have a positive effect on all four PTSD symptom categories; intrusion and re-experiencing, arousal, avoidance, and negative mood. Imagery rehearsal therapy (IRT) focuses on changing the storyline of a nightmare.

IRT is primarily a behavioral approach in which sleep hygiene and maladaptive sleep behaviors contributing to disordered sleep are assessed and addressed by working with a typical nightmare. Using IRT from 70 to 80% of PTSD patients will report clinically meaningful improvements in nightmare frequency, as well as improvements in insomnia and waking PTSD symptoms. This approach can also be used in concert with instruction in lucid dreaming to produce excellent results in reducing nightmare frequency. IRT focuses on nightmares and may not be helpful for PTSD patients who do not report nightmares. IRT is an ideal approach for treating individuals with PTSD who report persistent nightmares after completing other PTSD treatment protocols. It is an excellent approach that can be used in PTSD patients with a strong interest in dreaming, for those whose primary symptom is recurrent nightmares, for at-risk populations, and for those who might prefer a less aversive approach to care than that offered by prolonged exposure to trauma.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Colorado System, School of Medicine, Arroyo Seco, NM, USA

    J. F. Pagel

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Pagel, J.F. (2021). Imagery Rehearsal Therapy. In: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55909-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-55909-0_13

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-55908-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-55909-0

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