Table 4.

Controlled trials treating a psychiatric symptom and assessing the impact on nightmares.

								Change in nightmares following treatment of psychiatric symptom?
Citation	Design	N	Sample	Assessments	Measure of nightmares	Psychiatric symptom manipulated (measure)	Key findings	PTSD treatment
Gutner et al. (2013)	RCT comparing prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT)with minimally attention (MA) control.	171	Female rape victims with PTSD	Baseline, post-MA (6 weeks), post-treatment, 3-months, 9-months and LTFU	CAPS	CAPS	Large reductions in nightmares following treatment of PTSD using CPT or PE.	Yes
Silver et al. (1995)	Controlled trial testing PTSD treatment alone (control) vs. additional treatment with i) EMDR, ii) Biofeedback and iii) Relaxation training.	100	Inpatients with PTSD.	Baseline, at admission, 2 months later and at discharge 90 days after admission.	1-item of the Problem Report Form (PRF) rating severity of nightmares over past 7 days on 6 point likert scale.	PTSD flashbacks	Significant reduction in nightmares (p < .05).	Yes
Woodward et al. (2017)	RCT comparing cognitive therapy for PTSD with emotion-focused supportive therapy, and a waitlist.	121	Patients with PTSD.	Baseline and 14 weeks.	One item each from two PTSD scales (CAPS and PDS)	PTSD (PDS).	CT-PTSD led to significant large effect size reductions in nightmares when compared with emotion focused supportive therapy and waitlist control (partial η2 = 0.15–0.16).	Yes

EMDR = Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. PTSD = post-traumatic stress disorder.