Seeking safety: A new psychotherapy for posttraumatic stress disorder and substance use disorder.

Abstract

In 1993 I began developing a cognitive–behavioral therapy (CBT) for the dual diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorder (SUD), under a grant from the Behavioral Therapies Development Program of the National Institute on Drug Abuse. At that point, there were no published treatment outcome studies or any empirically studied psychosocial treatments for this population. Through trial and error, the Seeking Safety treatment manual (Najavits, 2002b) was developed while simultaneously its impact was tested on patients in a variety of settings. Seeking Safety is the first treatment for PTSD and substance abuse with published outcome results (Najavits, Weiss, Shaw, & Muenz, 1998). The goal was to mold a therapy that would best fit patients ’ needs, and to accomplish this by listening to patients very closely in the context of treating them, reading available literature, and conducting empirical research on the treatment. Seeking Safety has shown positive outcomes in four studies thus far that tap a range of subpopulations with this dual diagnosis: women in prison, inner-city women, adult outpatient women, and adult outpatient men. Other studies are currently underway.

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