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Adapting Treatment Delivery to Improve Retention in Evidence-Based PTSD Treatment

Not Applicable
Active, not recruiting
Conditions
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic
Interventions
Other: EBP-TAU
Other: EBP-Massed
Registration Number
NCT06335589
Lead Sponsor
VA Office of Research and Development
Brief Summary

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is prevalent among Veterans and effective evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for PTSD have been implemented within the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). However, retention in PTSD EBPs is poor. Premature dropout is associated with worse clinical outcomes and greater healthcare utilization. Delivery of PTSD EBPs in a massed format, typically three or more days per week delivered within a month, have shown promise for increasing retention. The present study is a pilot feasibility and acceptability study comparing massed PTSD treatment to treatment as usual (e.g., typically weekly treatment).

Detailed Description

Not available

Recruitment & Eligibility

Status
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Sex
All
Target Recruitment
30
Inclusion Criteria
  • Veterans aged 18 years or older;
  • meets criteria for current PTSD;
  • willingness to be randomized to either condition (e.g., EBP-Massed or EBP-TAU);
  • decision to receive CPT or PE in a treatment planning session with a Durham Trauma Recovery Program clinic provider;
  • ability to provide informed consent
Exclusion Criteria
  • High acute suicide risk;
  • active manic symptoms that would likely interfere with treatment;
  • active psychotic symptoms that would likely interfere with treatment;
  • currently in a concurrent trauma-focused evidence-based treatment for PTSD

Study & Design

Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Study Design
PARALLEL
Arm && Interventions
GroupInterventionDescription
EBP-TAUEBP-TAUPTSD evidence-based psychotherapies are delivered treatment as usual, which is typically once per week.
EBP-MassedEBP-MassedPTSD evidence-based psychotherapies are delivered in a massed format (e.g., intended be delivered at least three times per week).
Primary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Acceptability of Intervention (AIM)Immediately after treatment completion or discontinuation (weeks 0-20)

Veterans' perceived acceptability of massed treatment for PTSD; scale score ranges from 1-5; greater score = greater acceptability

Clinician Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-5 (CAPS-5) Severity Score3 Month Follow up

PTSD Symptom Severity - Clinician Assessed; range 0-80; higher scores = greater severity.

Treatment completionImmediately after treatment completion or discontinuation (weeks 0-20)

Proportion of Veterans who complete a full course of an assigned PTSD treatment

Client Satisfaction Questionnaire-8 (CSQ-8)Post-treatment (weeks 0-20)

Veterans' perceived satisfaction of assigned treatment; range 8-32; greater scores = greater satisfaction

Secondary Outcome Measures
NameTimeMethod
Brief Inventory of Psychosocial Functioning (BIPF)3 Month Follow up

PTSD-related psychosocial functioning; higher scores = more functional impairment. Items are scored on a Likert scale from 0 (never) to 6 (always). Participants are instructed to skip any item that does not reflect a domain that they have participated in over the past 30 days. The B-IPF is scored by summing the scored items to create a total score, dividing the total score by the maximum possible score based on the number of items scored, and multiplying by 100.

Session attendancePost-treatment (weeks 0-20)

The number of sessions attended of the assigned treatment

Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)3 Month Follow Up

Self-reported depression; range = 0-27; higher scores = more severe symptoms

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC

🇺🇸

Durham, North Carolina, United States

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