View clinical trials related to Stress Disorders, Traumatic.
Filter by:This project has the long-term goal of designing and validating a psychometrically sound inventory of PTSD-related functional impairment for active duty service members and veterans. The inventory will include assessments of multiple dimensions of functional impairment and their impact on quality of life and explicitly show how PTSD symptoms are related to functional impairment. By creating and validating an inventory to assess PTSD-related functioning--as they are perceived and reported by active military personnel and veterans--we hope to offer a useful tool for clinicians, researchers and military leaders. A measure of PTSD-related functional impairment will have enormous value from a health care perspective in terms of identifying individuals with the disorder and for promoting more efficient allocation of resources and efforts towards those who are in most need. We anticipate that the end product of this study, an efficient, empirically-based measure of PTSD-related functional impairment will have an immediate impact on the assessment and treatment of military-related PTSD, in terms of promoting more efficient allocation of resources and efforts towards those who are in most need. Such a measure will also assist with PTSD-related compensation and pension procedures and decisions by providing a means to more accurately assess PTSD-related functional impairment.
An increasing literature shows that omega-3 fatty acids provide numerous health benefits, including a variety of psychiatric symptoms and disorders including stress, anxiety, cognitive impairment, mood disorders (major depression and bipolar disorder) and schizophrenia. Omega-3 fatty acids may additionally represent a promising treatment strategy in patients with PTSD. Moreover, given its beneficial cardiovascular effects, adjunctive omega-3 fatty acids may also benefit the general health status of these veterans, who frequently present with a variety of comorbid medical disorders.
Patient self-efficacy, or confidence in one's ability to take the necessary steps to achieve a goal, has been shown to influence a number of important health behaviors and outcomes. However, current ways of increasing patient self-efficacy are time and labor intensive and occur away from doctor visits, where most health care is delivered. We developed, and are testing in a study the effectiveness of a new way of teaching doctors how to talk to patients during office visits in a way that will boost their patients' self-efficacy for changing important health behaviors.
Veterans returning from combat deployments face the interrelated challenges of processing their combat experiences and transitioning back to civilian life. Unfortunately, many veterans wait years or decades before seeking help for post-deployment problems, if they seek it at all. This study seeks to determine whether Internet-Based Expressive Writing (IB-EW), a brief, low-cost, easily disseminated, and resource-efficient intervention, can reduce psychological symptoms and improve functioning among Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) veterans as they navigate this transition, while also attempting to reduce barriers to help-seeking. Expressive Writing, a highly private, readily accessible, and non-stigmatizing intervention, has a strong evidence-base in civilian populations, but its efficacy in combat veterans has not been tested. This study therefore seeks to test the efficacy of Expressive Writing in a veteran population while further enhancing its accessibility by delivering it over the internet (Internet-Based Expressive Writing; IB-EW). This study will comprise a randomized controlled trial with three conditions: (a) Internet-Based Expressive Writing, (b) Internet-Based Control Writing, and (c) No Writing/Treatment As Usual, with a total of 1152 OIF/OEF veterans randomized across these groups. Expressive Writing participants will write with feeling about their transition from being a soldier to being a civilian; Control Writing participants will write factually about the information needs of new veterans; and Treatment as Usual participants will complete the assessments but not engage in any writing assignments. Participants will complete standardized self-report measures of psychological symptoms, psychosocial functioning, and life satisfaction at baseline (Session 1) and at three months (Session 6) and six months (Session 7) post-intervention. Participants in writing conditions will write for 20 minutes on four consecutive days (Sessions 2-5) following completion of baseline measures (participants in the TAU condition will not complete Sessions 2-5). The study will also attempt to identify individual difference characteristics related to the efficacy of the treatment, to see who may be most likely to benefit from the treatment. Analyses will primarily entail multivariate analyses of variance. Power is adequate to detect even a small effect.
The purpose of this project is to measure brain markers and cognitive factors in twins with a history of military service with and without PTSD, and to follow them over time and measure changes in brain function and cognitive variables.
The purpose of this study is to determine whether Trauma focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT)is more effective in the treatment of traumatized youth than treatment as usual(TAU).
Military sexual trauma (MST) is a significant women's mental health issue. There is a crucial need for effective therapies for MST-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that are well-tolerated and can be flexibly administered in a variety of treatment settings. Guided imagery is a novel, transportable intervention technique that meets these requirements and warrants research in PTSD. The proposed study will be a randomized controlled trial of the Guided Imagery for Trauma (GIFT) intervention for women veterans with MST-related PTSD. This minimal contact intervention is designed to increase coping, affect management and relaxation skills, and to fostering more positive images and beliefs associated with surviving trauma. The feasibility and tolerability of GIFT have already been demonstrated in an open-label pilot of 15 women veterans with MST-related PTSD, with very promising initial results.
This study proposes to evaluate the effects of D-cycloserine (DCS) combined with Virtual Reality exposure therapy in a sample of patients who developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following either the events of September 11, 2001, or military service in the war in Iraq. In addition, this study hopes to determine whether a common human genetic single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in a growth factor, brain derived neurotrophic factor, BDNF (Val66Met), predicts treatment response to PTSD. Overall, this study aims 1) to determine if subjects administered DCS show a significantly larger decrease in symptoms of PTSD as compared to those administered a placebo, 2) to determine if subjects administered DCS show a decrease in PTSD symptomatology significantly earlier (as measured by weeks) than those administered a placebo, 3) to determine if differences in symptomatology are evident at a 6-month follow-up and indicate long-term differences between groups, and 4) to determine if the BDNF SNP predicts treatment response.
This proposal seeks to increase the effectiveness of an existing treatment strategy, cognitive processing therapy (CPT), for the remediation of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder among crime victims by varying the duration and content of the intervention in accordance with participants' needs. A secondary goal is to identify predictors of duration of treatment necessary to achieve good end state functioning, including individual and trauma variables, cognitive and emotional variables, and Axis II pathology. Finally, by including a sample of male participants, the generalizability of CPT will be tested. It is anticipated that these modifications will speed the dissemination of CPT to community practice thus benefiting more trauma victims. Fifty subjects will be randomly assigned to either the modified CPT condition or to a symptom-monitoring, minimal attention condition designed to control for the effects of the daily monitoring and the passage of time. Utilizing a semicrossover design, the control condition will be crossed over to the active treatment, allowing for a replication within the study. The entire treated sample (N = 50) will be compared to a sample (N = 50) receiving strict 12-session protocol-driven CPT through the course of a recent study conducted at the same site using the same primary outcome measures. Conducting the proposed study will have important implications on advancing the ecological validity and effectiveness of applied research on PTSD.
This study seeks to evaluate the relationship between PTSD, abstinence, and factors associated with relapse in the context of a randomized, clinical smoking cessation trial.