View clinical trials related to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.
Filter by:mTBI is a leading cause of sustained physical, cognitive, emotional, and behavioral deficits in OEF/OIF/OND Veterans and the general public. However, the underlying pathophysiology is not completely understood, and there are few effective treatments for post-concussive symptoms (PCS). In addition, there are substantial overlaps between PCS and PTSD symptoms in mTBI. IASIS is among a class of passive neurofeedback treatments that combine low-intensity pulses for transcranial electrical stimulation (LIP-tES) with EEG monitoring. Nexalin is another tES technique , with FDA approvals for treating insomnia, depression, and anxiety. LIP-tES techniques have shown promising results in alleviating PCS individuals with TBI. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the effects of LIP-tES treatment in TBI are unknown, owing to the dearth of neuroimaging investigations of this therapeutic intervention. Conventional neuroimaging techniques such as MRI and CT have limited sensitivity in detecting physiological abnormalities caused by mTBI, or in assessing the efficacy of mTBI treatments. In acute and chronic phases, CT and MRI are typically negative even in mTBI patients with persistent PCS. In contrast, evidence is mounting in support of resting-state magnetoencephalography (rs-MEG) slow-wave source imaging (delta-band, 1-4 Hz) as a marker for neuronal abnormalities in mTBI. The primary goal of the present application is to use rs-MEG to identify the neural underpinnings of behavioral changes associated with IASIS treatment in Veterans with mTBI. Using a double-blind placebo controlled design, the investigators will study changes in abnormal MEG slow-waves before and after IASIS treatment (relative to a 'sham' treatment group) in Veterans with mTBI. For a subset of participants who may have remaining TBI symptoms at the end of all IASIS treatment sessions, MEG slow-wave changes will be recorded before and after additional Nexalin treatment. In addition, the investigators will examine treatment-related changes in PCS, PTSD symptoms, neuropsychological test performances, and their association with changes in MEG slow-waves. The investigators for the first time will address a fundamental question about the mechanism of slow-waves in brain injury, namely whether slow-wave generation in wakefulness is merely a negative consequence of neuronal injury or if it is a signature of ongoing neuronal rearrangement and healing that occurs at the site of the injury.
The BASIC study will take place in Kanduyi/Bungoma South Sub-County, in western Kenya, and focuses on children orphaned by one or two parents. Growing evidence demonstrates that orphaned children in low- and middle-income countries are at higher risk of mental health problems, but mental health professionals are largely unavailable in this area. Research suggests that some mental health treatments can be delivered effectively in low- and middle-income countries using a task-shifting approach, in which lay counselors with little or no prior mental health experience are trained to provide treatment, and deliver with supervision. However, very little is known about how to support local systems and organizations in delivering mental health care via task-shifting, particularly in a way that could scale-able and sustainable in the low-resource context. The BASIC team's prior work suggests that partnering with two government sectors, education and health, could be a low-cost and sustainable strategy to implement task-shifted mental health services. By training teachers (via the Education sector) and community health volunteers (via the Health sector) to provide mental health care, a larger population could potentially be reached. Before attempting any country or system-wide implementation, it is important to know what is needed to enable successful implementation in either or both sectors, client outcomes for those receiving mental health care when delivered via Education or Health, and cost of delivery in both sectors. The team aims to collect outcomes that are relevant to policy makers, and that can be considered along with cost and experiences in both sectors.
This study aims to develop and evaluate biomarkers using non-invasive optical coherence tomography (OCT) and OCT angiography (OCTA) as well as ultra-widefield (UWF) fundus photography to assess the structure and function of the retinal and choroidal microvasculature and structure in persons with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD), Parkinson's Disease (PD), or other neurodegenerative disease, diseases as outlined.
This pilot study investigated the trauma reducing effects of the Transcendental Meditation program on female prisoners The study was conducted over the 4 month period and measured total trauma symptoms at baseline and posttest in both the TM experimental group and waitlist controls
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating mental disorder that affects approximately 7% of the general population. This project's aim is to develop a greater understanding of the efficacy and underlying mechanisms of narrative exposure based treatments for PTSD. Adult participants (N=162) who meet DSM-5 criteria for PTSD will be enrolled in a 3-arm randomized clinical trial consisting of trauma-related expressive writing, trauma-related expressive speaking, or a factual expressive writing control condition. Treatments will be manualized and conducted entirely through the Qualtrics survey platform. Treatment will consist of six sessions, three per week over two weeks, taking place via the internet. Assessments will be conducted pre-treatment, post-treatment, and at 1-month follow-up in the lab. Assessments will be comprised of symptom self-report measures as well as two tasks completed in an eye tracker: a reading task to evaluate mechanisms underlying trauma narrative processing and a sentence production task to evaluate attentional shifts when producing verbal information Specific Aims and Hypotheses: 1. Develop and test the relative efficacy of two cost-effective internet-based expressive trauma therapies (written vs. spoken) relative to a non-trauma writing control for PTSD. We hypothesize that both trauma-focused expressive therapies will achieve more favorable outcomes at posttreatment and follow-up on measures of PTSD and depression symptoms, posttraumatic growth, and quality of life compared to the writing control. 2. Conduct exploratory analyses testing baseline PTSD severity, depression severity, trauma type, time since trauma, and emotional engagement in moderating the differential effects of the selected expressive therapies. 3. Test the moderation of (1) active language processing with eye tracking (i.e. how long certain words are fixated on). (2) selected linguistic elements (i.e., frequency of emotional words, frequency of the pronoun "I"), (3) perceived self-efficacy to cope with trauma memories; (4) perceived threat appraisals associated with intrusive trauma memories on treatment outcome at follow-up. We hypothesize that (1) fewer and shorter fixations on ideographic (i.e. personally relevant) trauma words when reading the trauma narrative in the eye tracker will be associated with reductions in PTSD symptoms at follow-up. (2) increased use of emotional words over the course of writing sessions will be associated with reductions in PTSD and depression symptoms at follow-up; (3) pre- to posttreatment increases in trauma memory acceptance self-efficacy; and (4) pre- to posttreatment reductions in trauma memory threat appraisals will be associated with greater symptom reduction at the follow-up assessment.
This research study is being done to try to find a way to accurately diagnose post-traumatic stress syndrome (PTSD) in combat veterans.Diagnostic biomarkers have made invaluable contributions to the diagnosis and treatment monitoring of many diseases and disorders. Unfortunately, PTSD currently lacks a reliable and compelling clinically-relevant biomarker. The absence of a viable biomarker impairs efficient and confident diagnosis of PTSD, with diminished effective care options often resulting.
Concept: Alcohol misuse is common among Veterans with PTSD. It has been proposed that this high comorbidity is the result of "self-medication," with alcohol being used to alleviate common PTSD symptoms (e.g., hyperarousal, sleep problems). Given this high prevalence and functional relationship, researchers at the BSD of the NCPTSD developed the VetChange self-management website to concurrently address these conditions. In a large scale RCT, VetChange has shown efficacy to reduce both alcohol misuse and PTSD symptoms. Unfortunately, the recently launched publicly available VetChange website (Vetchange.org) has been plagued by a high rate of visitors not completing the mandatory registration process, which is required for repeated use. Based on the promising findings of the VetChange research, the D&T Division partnered with the BSD Division to develop the VetChange mobile app, which is set to be released to the public very soon. However, unlike the VetChange website, the app has not yet been evaluated and has the advantage of allowing users to easily obtain it without having to register and repeatedly log on through an Internet connection. This research partnership between the D&T and BSD Divisions will extend and enhance an ongoing successful cross-center collaboration in a high priority topic for the larger Center. The purpose of this proposal is to conduct a pilot evaluation of the VetChange mobile app in order to test its feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy to reduce alcohol consumption, PTSD severity, and improve psychosocial functioning among Veterans with PTSD who exhibit signs of problem drinking. In this study, 280 Veterans with problem drinking and clinically significant PTSD symptoms will be recruited using social media and randomized in equal numbers to receive one of four conditions: 1) Assessment only, 2) VetChange mobile app only, 3) AFT plus the VetChange mobile app supplemented with a package of supportive accountability tools (VetChange+). In addition to receiving the mobile app, VetChange+ participants will receive SMS reminders to log drinking behavior using the mobile app. The investigators will track objective use of the VetChange mobile app to assess feasibility, and this usage data will also be used in real-time to tailor the content of text messages provided to participants in the VetChange+ condition. Participants will complete measures of alcohol use, functional well-being, and PTSD symptoms at baseline and again after 8 weeks (posttreatment). At post-treatment, participants in the VetChange app arms of the study will also be asked to report their level of satisfaction with the app and to complete a brief qualitative evaluation of their experience using the VetChange mobile app. Results of this pilot study will be used to characterize the feasibility, acceptability, and potential efficacy of a mobile app-based self-management intervention to reduce problem drinking behavior in Veterans with PTSD, will inform optimization of the intervention, and will serve as the foundation for subsequent proposals for extramural funding.
This study will evaluate the effects of Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) on physiological reactivity. This study will focus on individuals with anxiety who will participate in an 8-week MBSR class. The investigators will test participants' reactivity to both predictable and unpredictable stimuli before and after the class to understand the physiological changes that may occur after to the intervention. Secondary measures include psychometric instruments and a delay discounting task.
The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the feasibility of the revised brain training program with individuals diagnosed with Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The investigators have developed a mobile app called Resolving Psychological Stress (REPS) for people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The app will administer threat-related attention bias modification to individuals who score high on a PTSD checklist. This study will be administered remotely to individuals in the United States. The aims of the study are to explore feasibility, acceptability and usability of the app in an entirely remote study, as well as to explore the efficacy of the app at reducing attention bias and PTSD symptom severity.