Why not look for positive changes as well. Try Stephen Joseph's Changes in Outlook Questionnaire or the Psychological Wellbeing and Posttraumatic Change Questionnaire?

There are a number of valid and reliable scales that you could use for this purpose. If you are looking for a self-report instrument I suggest you consider the PCL (PTSD Checklist) which has civilian, military, and specific trauma versions. It measures the 17 DSM-IV PTSD symptoms. More information and measure available at http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/pages/assessments/ptsd-checklist.asp. With the DSM5 release just around the corner, with a larger number of PTSD symptoms, you might consider DSM5 symptoms in your assessment.

Contact with www.cvt.org they are profissional in this topic

How might 8 weeks of music therapy compare with 1 hour of EMDR or other exposure therapy?

Are you intending to include a variable demographic of veterans receiving typical pharmaceutical therapies, as well? In my personal experience, I've noticed a trend of these alternative treatment options often failing to make an impression with healthcare providers because of methodological differences.

I have heard of the Greene Climacteric Scale, Perceived Stress Scale, and Eysenck's Personality Inventory being used with Yoga Therapy Studies. Please share what scales you find regarding the changes on affect and connections with others.

Good point Phil. There is some headway being made, even in Yoga Therapy and Mindfulness and plenty of research backing up the value and the effectiveness of these "alternative" treatments. ( One technique of "Mindfulness" meditation involves listening and hearing.)

Meanwhile, the research has to keep coming in and get stronger in order to even put a dent in the firewall of Major Pharmaceutical funded research.

On a side note: I am aware that a few of the of the "medicines" prescribed for PTSD (Much of it not FDA approved for long term use.) cost in towards $1000 a month.. much paid for by Military benefits.. I am pretty sure a music therapist could get about 80-150 a session.. perhaps 60% covered by insurance and see the client once a week for good and lasting results. Max total cost of 8 weeks, $1200..(with not a lot of money backing the research.) While it takes at least two or three months to even begin to stabilize on some of the medicines in use for PTSD and two or three prescriptions are required for an optimal effect, then the Dr. Visits, blood work and following cascade of medical problems associated with side effects of the medicine and millions and millions of dollars to support research that states it works. The prefered methodology is clearly based on mathematics. Yet, medicine can be very helpful and necessary in the initial treatment.

@Dara - well, as to the cost of PTSD medications, I can say from personal experience that the standard array of GABA-A agonists which are often firstline treatments for both anxiety, insomnia, and even seizures are dirt-cheap, although they generally have very dramatic, even potentially lethal withdrawal symptoms which necessitate that the patient be tapered off after several months of use.

Doctors will likely always prefer these options in the treatment of (at least short term) the often extreme anxiety accompanying PTSD due to their unchallengable efficacy and well-researched pharmacodynamics/kinetics. They can produce dramatic results in seconds if IV administered, or minutes through oral absorption - and despite the many risks (including increased risk of suicidality) of benzodiazepine anxiolytics and non-benzodiazepine GABA agonist sleep medications, they can do in half an hour what yoga, meditation, or even cognitive reconditioning therapies may take weeks to do.

While I won't argue with your appraisal of pharmaceutical company values, in order for an objective piece of scientific research to be produced, to internalize that in your research or manifest in any detectable confirmation bias will ensure that the DOD and VA won't care to read your work.

I'd like to see a Yoga/Meditation variable group, a GABA-A agonist group, and a congitive reconditioning therapy group all have their progress in both acute and chronic anxiolysis measured by a research team with no clear ties to the Armed Forces or pharmaceutical sponsors. That could be clinically relevant, I think.

I also am very interested in the comparison of these groups. I am looking at research and contemplating an approach. I am especially interested the research that was done prior to 2006.

The ethics of carrying out that experimenting on actual veterans seems quite dubious, though, when I think about it. They are usually people who need intensive care, all of the time.