Testing the Effectiveness of a Therapist-Assisted Self-Management Program for Veterans Who Finished PTSD Therapy

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

In brief

Patients who complete prolonged exposure and cognitive processing therapy, the treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with the most empirical support, continue to express a need for mental health treatment. A therapist-assisted self-management program for patients who have completed one of these two treatments and achieved symptom improvement has the potential to meet patients' stated treatment needs, maintain or build upon their PTSD symptom reductions, increase their confidence in managing their symptoms, and reduce the number of mental health appointments that they need to attend. Further, reducing the number if mental health sessions attended by completers of these time and resource intensive psychotherapies will increase the likelihood that their implementation in regular-practice clinics will be maintained.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT05797441

Run by

VA Office of Research and Development

People needed

80

Starts

2023-10-16

Expected to finish

2026-03-23

Last updated by the study team

2026-04-08

Who can join

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

You may qualify if…

• Patients will be eligible to participate if they:
• complete a course of individually-delivered TFT with a study therapist at a participating site
• experience a clinically meaningful change in PTSD symptomology
• at the time of enrollment (in either the TAU or EMPOWER arm), are not planning to initiate another weekly psychotherapy for PTSD for another mental or psychosocial condition within 3 months
• are willing to receive to either arm
• provide informed consent

You may not qualify if…

• Patients will be excluded if they report suicidal ideation that requires clinical monitoring at baseline

Where it is running

• VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Sepulveda, CA — Sepulveda, California, United States
• James A. Haley Veterans' Hospital, Tampa, FL — Tampa, Florida, United States
• Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Chicago, IL — Chicago, Illinois, United States
• Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital, Hines, IL — Hines, Illinois, United States
• Minneapolis VA Health Care System, Minneapolis, MN — Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States
• Durham VA Medical Center, Durham, NC — Durham, North Carolina, United States
• Cincinnati VA Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH — Cincinnati, Ohio, United States
• Wm. Jennings Bryan Dorn VA Medical Center, Columbia, SC — Columbia, South Carolina, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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