Journal of Traumatic Stress, Vol. 21, No. 2, April 2008, pp. 150–157 ( C  2008) A Field Test of Group Based Exposure Therapy With 102 Veterans With War-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder David J. Ready Mental Health Service Line, VA Medical Center–Atlanta, Decatur, GA and Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA Kaprice R. Thomas The Georgia School of Professional Psychology, Argosy University, Atlanta, GA Virginia Worley Mental Health Service Line, VA Medical Center–Atlanta, Decatur, GA Andrea G. Backscheider Department of Educational Psychology, University of Houston, Houston, TX Leigh Anne C. Harvey and David Baltzell Mental Health Service Line, VA Medical Center–Atlanta, Decatur, GA and Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA Barbara Olasov Rothbaum Emory University School of Medicine, Emory University, Atlanta, GA Group-based exposure therapy (GBET) was field-tested with 102 veterans with war-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Nine to 11 patients attended 3 hours of group therapy per day twice weekly for 16–18 weeks. Stress management and a minimum of 60 hours of exposure was included (3 hours of within-group war-trauma presentations per patient, 30 hours of listening to recordings of patient’s own war-trauma presentations and 27 hours of hearing other patients’ war-trauma presentations). Analysis of assessments conducted by treating clinicians pre-, post- and 6-month posttreatment suggests that GBET produced clinically significant and lasting reductions in PTSD symptoms for most patients on both clinician symptoms ratings (6-month posttreatment effect size δ = 1.22) and self-report measures with only three dropouts. The International Society of Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) practice guidelines indicate that there is more empirical support for exposure therapy than for any other posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment (Rothbaum, Meadows, Resick, & Foy, 2000). A recent survey suggests that exposure therapy is rarely used in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) system despite its treating large numbers of war veterans with PTSD (Rosen et al., 2004). The failure to adopt evidence-based therapies may explain why studies have generally failed to support the efficacy of VA PTSD treatment (Zadecki, 1999). Exposure therapy for The authors acknowledge the invaluable contributions of Amanda Lorenz, Susan Berel, Rebecca Ready, Kevin Wilson, Lace DePadilla, Julia Morton, Patricia Parmelee, Karen Herman, Thomas Mozley III, and Patrick Sylvers to this project. The Mental Health Service Line of the Atlanta VA Medical Center supported this research and the Atlanta Department of Veterans Affairs Health Services Research & Development Service provided statistical consultation and analysis. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: David J. Ready, Mental Heath Service Line (116A), VA Medical Center–Atlanta, 1670 Clairmont Road, Decatur, GA 30033. E-mail: David.Ready@va.gov. C  2008 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) DOI: 10.1002/jts.20326 PTSD requires repeated and prolonged confronting of traumatic experiences with the goal of facilitating the emotional processing of the experience (Foa & Kozak, 1986). Although war veterans have been found to be more difficult to treat than other PTSD populations, four controlled studies provide support for exposure therapy with war veterans, although the effects have been small (Rothbaum, Hodges, Ready, Graap, & Alarcon, 2001). This is a study of an ongoing specialized VA PTSD pro- gram that has made extensive use of exposure therapy for over 4 years using a new model called group-based exposure therapy 150