Ethical reflections on offering patients accelerated resolution therapy (ART)

Accelerated resolution therapy (ART) is a new therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that has shown exceptional promise. Compared with other standard, more evidence-based treatments, initial research has shown ART to be as effective, quicker, easier to learn, and more cost-efficient. There are ethical issues clinicians should consider before recommending ART to their patients, including the need for additional research to fully establish ART’s net benefits and the difficulty patients might encounter accessing therapists trained to perform ART-based therapy. However, the authors argue that based on the moral principle of beneficence—helping their patients—and respecting patient autonomy, clinicians should consider informing their patients with PTSD of this emerging therapy to allow patients to make fully informed decisions regarding their treatment.