Sleep-directed Hypnosis As A Complement To Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) In Treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Status unconfirmed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

In brief

Sleep impairment is the most often reported of the 17 PTSD symptoms and is considered one of the most refractory to treatment. This study proposes the use of sleep-directed hypnotherapy to address sleep issues as a complementary element to empirically supported Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) in treating PTSD in sexual and physical assault survivors. Specifically the study aims to: 1) compare the results of sleep-directed hypnosis plus CPT with CPT only, 2) to assess the relationship between sleep and PTSD symptoms, 3) to examine relationships between sleep improvement, PTSD symptom improvement, and the therapeutic elements (hypnosis, exposure, cognitive therapy) to determine mechanisms of action in the intervention, 4) to assess the relationship between sleep and physical reactivity to trauma-related cues and to other stimuli.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT00725192

Run by

Center for Trauma Recovery, St Louis

People needed

50

Starts

2008-07-01

Expected to finish

2012-04-01

Last updated by the study team

2011-04-07

Who can join

Age: 18 and older. Sex: female. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Participants will be at least three months post-crime at the time of their participation and will have been diagnosed with PTSD. Participants will score at least a "3" on the CAPS symptom of sleep impairment. This score is indicative of clinically significant symptomatology on any PTSD symptom. There is no upper limit on time since the trauma for participation.

You may not qualify if…

• Exclusion criteria for participants include psychosis, mental retardation, active suicidality, parasuicidality, or current addiction to drugs or alcohol. In the case of apparent illiteracy, we will try to accommodate the individual as much as possible to maximize success in the program. In addition, participants cannot be in a currently abusive relationship or being stalked. For marital rape or domestic violence, the participant must have been out of the relationship for at least three months. Participants can have received any therapy in the past with the exception of CPT. They may be receiving concurrent therapy as long as it is not trauma-focused. Allowing subjects to continue with concurrent therapy offers them the option to continue with established supports and more closely mimics clinical practice and the generalizability of the results. Participants will be asked to monitor and adhere to several behaviors that significantly impact sleep and may introduce error into the study aims. Inability or unwillingness to comply the the following will constitute exclusion criteria: Participants will be asked not to increase sleep medications, but to continue usual practice. This usage will be monitored on a daily basis on the sleep diaries. Daytime sleeping or naps will be monitored on the daily diaries and used as an outcome measure as naps are utilized less and less frequently across time in a number of insomnia treatment studies. Participants will also be asked to keep alcohol consumption to no more than 14 servings per week with no more than 5 servings on any given day. We will also ask participants to consume no more than 500 mg of caffeine on a daily basis and to refrain from caffeine consumption after 6 pm. We will further ask participants to maintain their bedtime and rise time during the work week and to not vary these times by more than one hour on days off. Participants will record bedtime and rise time on their daily diaries. Participants will be asked to maintain these sleep-related behaviors for the duration of therapy - approximately 8-10 weeks.

Where it is running

• Center for Trauma Recovery — St Louis, Missouri, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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