Telephone Support During Overseas Deployment for Military Spouses

Family Members Clinical Trial

Official title:

Telephone Support During Overseas Deployment for Military Spouses

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Completed

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT01828983
• Other study ID #: W81XWH-11-2-0087
• Status: Completed
• Phase: N/A
• First received: April 4, 2013
• Last updated: October 20, 2017
• Start date: April 2011
• Est. completion date: June 2015

Study information

• Verified date: October 2017
• Source: Memphis VA Medical Center
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

Deployment impacts both service member and family, and the cost can be high. Spouses' reactions to deployment may include emotional distress, loneliness, anticipatory fear or grief, somatic complaints, and depression. The goal is to help spouses learn ways to manage stress and solve problems related to deployment and reintegration, communication, managing long distance relationships, and other common problems. The study will compare telephone support groups to online education sessions. The study will enroll 160 spouses. In the Telephone Support groups, a group leader and participants will meet 12 times over six months to focus on education, skills building and support. Education Only online sessions will provide the same education content, without skills building or support. Content includes strategies to reduce or eliminate communication difficulties during deployment, how to find help; practical concerns during deployment; fostering resilience and decreasing stress; fostering relationships while apart, negotiating roles and relationships; changes during deployment; strategies to support the spouse and the service member; and cues to alert spouses when to seek mental health services for the family or themselves. Outcomes will include resilience, depression, anxiety and coping behaviors. Telephone data collection will be conducted at baseline, six and twelve months.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Completed
• Enrollment: 161
• Est. completion date: June 2015
• Est. primary completion date: December 2014
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• spouse or significant other (living as married for at least one year before deployment) of an overseas deployed military service member

• deployed at least six months

Exclusion Criteria:

• living as married for at least one year before deployment

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Deployment
• Family Members
• Military Personnel
• Resilience, Psychological

Intervention

Behavioral:
• Telephone support groups

Other:
• Education webinars

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
United States	Memphis VA Medical Center	Memphis	Tennessee

Sponsors (2)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Memphis VA Medical Center	United States Department of Defense

Country where clinical trial is conducted

United States, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Spouse Self-report of Resilience	Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC) measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Scores range from 0-100. Higher scores equal greater resilience.	Baseline, 6 months
Primary	Spouse Self Report of Anxiety	Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7) measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Scores range from 0 to 21; higher scores equal more anxiety.	baseline, and 6 months
Primary	Spouse Self Report of Depression	Patient Health Questionnaire - Depression (PHQ)-9 measured at baseline, 6 and 12 months. Scores range from 0-27 with higher scores indicating more depressive symptoms.	Baseline, 6 months