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

Conditions

• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Eligibility Criteria

Sex

ALL

Age

N/A - N/A

Healthy Volunteers

Not accepted

Interventions

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Social Support for Veterans with PTSD — BEHAVIORAL
  This treatment is designed to help Veterans with PTSD increase social support in family, partner, and peer relationships by reducing experiential avoidance. ACT-SS is specifically designed to address deficits in the entire social support network for Veterans with PTSD.
• Present-Centered Therapy — BEHAVIORAL
  PCT is designed to provide the emotional support for individuals with PTSD that will assist with recovery. The focus of PCT is on the "here and now," including current life difficulties that are directly or indirectly related to the experience of trauma. PCT aims to help the patient consider ways to react to these difficulties.

Study Details

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 Dates

Start date

Mar 1, 2021

Status verified

Jan 2026

Primary completion

Feb 11, 2025

Completion

Feb 11, 2025

Study Design

Enrollment

107 participants (actual)

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Intervention model

PARALLEL

Primary purpose

TREATMENT

Arms

• Experimental: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Social Support
  This treatment is designed to help Veterans with PTSD increase social support in family, partner, and peer relationships by reducing experiential avoidance. ACT-SS is specifically designed to address deficits in the entire social support network for Veterans with PTSD.
• Active Comparator: Present-Centered Therapy
  PCT is designed to provide the emotional support for individuals with PTSD that will assist with recovery. The focus of PCT is on the "here and now," including current life difficulties that are directly or indirectly related to the experience of trauma. PCT aims to help the patient consider ways to react to these difficulties.

Primary Outcome Measure

Change in the Social Adjustment Scale-Self Report [ Time Frame: Baseline, End of Treatment (12 weeks), 3-month follow-up, and 6-month follow-up ]

Locations (3)

Find similar trials in Aurora, CO

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