Meditation and Yoga for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Meta-Analytic Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

Course overview

This course discusses the effectiveness of complementary health approaches such as yoga and meditation in the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. Using a meta-analysis approach, the authors measure the effect size of complementary interventions on PTSD outcomes in adult patients. Also discussed are the effects of intervention type, choice of PTSD outcome measures, study population, sample size, and control condition on the results. The course reviews 19 randomized control trials with data on 1,173 participants to conclude that meditation and yoga are promising complementary approaches in the treatment of PTSD among adults and warrant further study. This course is based upon material published in the journal Clinical Psychology Review and is available as an open access article. This course on complementary health approaches in the treatment of PTSD is designed for social workers, professional counselors, psychologists, nurses, and substance abuse counselors, who do clinical work. This course is appropriate for beginning, intermediate and advanced level practitioners who wish to develop their understanding of non-traditional treatments for the symptoms of PTSD. The course material includes a literature review of interventions. It may also be useful for licensed clinicians who require clinical continuing education courses for license renewal. The course is based on a journal article which includes research. It contains statistical analysis and data that some clinicians enjoy reading and others do not. A major benefit of reading research based articles for continuing education is they provide practitioners with the latest findings in their field.