Last month, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) issued an updated Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of PTSD. I was enthusiastic to see that the very first recommendation in this guideline encourages health care providers to engage patients in shared decision making.
As a shared decision making researcher, I have found that most providers are on board with the idea of involving patients in PTSD treatment decisions, but they are often less clear about what shared decision should actually look like in practice or exactly how or why shared decision making is beneficial for patients. To help clarify these issues—and to hopefully inspire you to consider how you can better integrate shared decision making in your own clinical practice—this Clinician’s Corner column addresses some common questions about shared decision making and its role in the treatment of PTSD.
