Post-deployment health screening of members of the United Kingdom Armed Forces: the POST study
Not Applicable
Completed
- Conditions
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, alcohol misuse and post-concussion symptoms (PCS)Mental and Behavioural DisordersPost-traumatic stress disorder
- Registration Number
- ISRCTN19965528
- Lead Sponsor
- King's College London (UK)
- Brief Summary
2017 results in: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28215661
- Detailed Description
Not available
Recruitment & Eligibility
- Status
- Completed
- Sex
- All
- Target Recruitment
- 6000
Inclusion Criteria
Healthy volunteers from the Armed Forces who have recently returned from deployment in Afghanistan
Exclusion Criteria
1. Platoons which act as such only during deployment and disperse at reintegration
2. Platoons whose size is below 20
3. Special Forces
4. Those who have deployed for less than 30 days
Study & Design
- Study Type
- Interventional
- Study Design
- Not specified
- Primary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method <br> 1. Is post-deployment screening for PTSD, depression, anxiety and alcohol misuse effective in reducing the morbidity (level of symptoms and functional impairment) from these conditions?<br> 2. Does the subsequent help seeking behavior of those identified as possible cases in the screening group differ from that in the control group?<br> 3. Are there side effects of the screening program in the intervention group in comparison to the control group?<br> 4. Is a screening programme cost-effective?<br>
- Secondary Outcome Measures
Name Time Method <br> 1. We will ascertain the level of impairment and the change in status in the intervention and control groups<br> 2. We will also measure post concussion symptoms (PCS) in the reassessment stage in the two groups to monitor the consequences of screening on the long term manifestations of mTBI<br> 3. We will also measure changes in the score for each of the tests in the efficacy assessment as a complementary analysis, but not as a primary outcome, to assess whether the change has been greater in the intervention than the control group<br> 4. As a complementary aim of the study we will carry out a small survey to assess the attitudes of welfare and health professionals towards a screening program<br>