Psychological interventions for adult posttraumatic stress disorder: A systematic review of published meta-analyses

Objective: A large and growing number of published meta-analyses have examined the efficacy of psychological interventions for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Conclusions drawn from these meta-analyses on treatment efficacy greatly influence clinical practice. This study aimed to provide a comprehensive review of meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on psychological interventions for adult PTSD, focusing on their content, methodology, and reporting quality. Method: Systematic database searches were conducted in March 2024 using MEDLINE, PsycInfo, PTSDpubs, Web of Science, and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. The quality of meta-analyses was assessed using AMSTAR 2. The systematic review was registered on PROSPERO (CRD42020151234). Results: Overall, 55 meta-analyses with 93 meta-analytic comparisons at treatment endpoint and 28 comparisons at follow-up were included. Meta-analyses most consistently showed superiority of psychological interventions over control conditions. However, beneficial long-term effects exceeding one-month post-treatment were limited to trauma-focused cognitive behavior interventions (TF-CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). There was a substantial overlap of primary RCTs, indicating redundancy between meta-analyses. Furthermore, the quality of meta-analyses varied substantially. Conclusions: There is a need to enhance the methodological and reporting quality of meta-analyses, avoid the production of redundant meta-analyses, and conduct more high-quality, large RCTs with long-term assessments.