Practice patterns for treating posttraumatic stress disorder in an out-patient setting in Germany

Background/Objectives: In the past years, several guidelines for the treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been presented, e.g. by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) in the United States, by the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) in the UK, and by the Association of Scientific Medical Societies (AWMF) in Germany. However, studies from the USA showed that evidence-based and recommended interventions such as exposure therapy are not as often used as expected. Until now it is not known, however, how far outpatient treatment of PTSD in Germany is…