Individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who have strong anger symptoms may benefit more from interpersonal psychotherapy than other common PTSD psychotherapies, according to a
report in
The American Journal of Psychotherapy.
Why It’s Relevant
Anger figures prominently in PTSD, and its association with physical aggression and violence—especially among younger, male, combat-exposed veterans with PTSD—may help explain the popularity of “anger management,” a nebulous term for counseling aimed at avoiding triggers for anger. But some researchers have
suggested that therapy should help patients deal directly with their interpersonal issues rather than suppress their feelings or divert them via “venting.” However, clinical research has rarely focused on anger as an outcome.
By the Numbers
- Researchers analyzed data on 110 unmedicated patients with PTSD who received 14 weeks of prolonged exposure (PE), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), or relaxation therapy (RT). Anger and irritability were captured by questions on the Clinician-Administered PTSD (CAPS) scale and Beck Depression Inventory–II (BDI-II), respectively.
- Patients who received IPT experienced greater reductions in their CAPS anger scores at 14 weeks (2.42 points) than those receiving RT (1.27 points) or PE (1.03 points). The difference between IPT and RT was statistically significant.
- BD-II irritability scores were also significantly lower in the IPT group compared with the RT group—though not the PE group—at 14 weeks.
The Other Side
Anger wasn’t a primary outcome or enrollment criterion in the original trial, so the study relied on scattered questions rather than fully validated anger scales—though as of yet, no definitive anger scale exists.
Takeaway Message
The researchers said that anger deserves more research in the context of treatment of psychiatric disorders However, these preliminary results suggest that emotion-focused treatments like IPT may be better suited to address persistent or maladaptive anger than those like RT that use anger management techniques. PE, which engages some emotion as it habituates patients to their trauma, fell in the middle. “Future research should include contextual anger-specific measures and examine whether anger trajectories predict broader functional recovery,” the researchers wrote.
Related Information
Source
John C. Markowitz, et. al. Effects of psychotherapies for posttraumatic stress disorder on anger: an exploratory study. The American Journal of Psychotherapy. Published May 11, 2026. doi: 10.1176/appi.psychotherapy.20250062
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