Edna Foa, PhD, a pioneer in exposure therapy for PTSD, died March 24 from complications of pneumonia at 88, The New York Times reported April 12.
Dr. Foa developed prolonged exposure therapy, a structured protocol to help patients confront traumatic events, in the 1980s with her colleague Barbara Rothbaum, PhD, the director of the Emory Healthcare Veterans Program in Atlanta. Although elements of treatment were not new, this was the first time they were put into a standardized structure. The manual has since been translated into nine languages and thousands of therapists nationwide use the technique.
Dr. Foa was the director of the Center for the Treatment and Study of Anxiety at the University of Pennsylvania Medical School in Philadelphia from 1998 to 2023, when she retired but remained active as a lecturer.
Prolonged exposure therapy has patients complete eight to 12 90-minute sessions wherein they recount a traumatic event in the present tense, and linger on the most vivid and upsetting elements. Then the patients go through real-life exposure to things that inspire the fear.
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