Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Social Support for Veterans With PTSD

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

In brief

Veterans with PTSD often have impaired social relationships and poor social support. The negative outcomes associated with poor social support are of particular concern for Veterans with PTSD, who often perceive the world to be dangerous, view their social support network as a threat to their safety, and avoid members of their support network in order to increase their perceived safety. The goal of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Social Support for Veterans with PTSD (ACT-SS), a treatment focused on helping Veterans with PTSD to increase social support with family relationships, partners, and peers by targeting maladaptive patterns of interpersonal difficulties, feelings of detachment from others, irritability, and avoidance of social situations. The primary aim of this study is to conduct a two-site randomized controlled trial of ACT-SS (n=75) vs. PCT (n=75), a common treatment for social support difficulties. If positive, this study will provide a critically-needed treatment for Veterans with PTSD to improve their social functioning and social reintegration in the community.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT04567680

Run by

VA Office of Research and Development

People needed

107

Starts

2021-03-01

Expected to finish

2025-02-11

Last updated by the study team

2026-02-13

Who can join

Age: any. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Current DSM-5 PTSD diagnosis
• Minimum score of 31 on the PCL-5
• Clinically significant difficulties in interpersonal relationships
• Competent to provide written informed consent
• Ages 18 and older
• If being treated with psychoactive medication, no change in drugs or dose for the past 2 months
• Willingness to be audio-taped

You may not qualify if…

• Any current or lifetime DSM-5 psychotic disorder
• Current or recent (within 1 month of study entry) DSM-5 substance use disorder
• Cognitive impairment that would interfere with study participation
• Current manic episode
• Recent clinically significant suicidality (past 3 months)
• Moderate to severe domestic violence (measured by the Conflict Tactics Scale-2)
• Current PTSD psychotherapy

Where it is running

• Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center, Aurora, CO — Aurora, Colorado, United States
• VA Connecticut Healthcare System West Haven Campus, West Haven, CT — West Haven, Connecticut, United States
• VA Bedford HealthCare System, Bedford, MA — Bedford, Massachusetts, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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