Exploring the link between patients’ learning experiences and symptom change in exposure-based CBT – Insights from the PROTECT-AD study –

The present study aims to investigate how patients’ subjective learning experiences following exposure-based CBT relate to long-term symptom change. By integrating qualitative learning statements with quantitative symptom trajectories, the study seeks to identify central experiential themes and examine their associations with sustained therapeutic outcomes over a period of three to six years. Conceptually, the study is grounded in current models of exposure-based CBT that emphasize expectancy violation as a central learning mechanism of exposure. The qualitative focus on patients’ learning experiences aims to capture how change processes are subjectively interpreted and integrated after therapy.