Objectives: This randomized controlled trial of yoga for military veterans and active duty personnel with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) evaluated the efficacy of a 10-week yoga intervention on PTSD. Method: Fifty-one participants were randomized into yoga or no-treatment assessment-only control groups. Primary outcome measures included questionnaires and the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale. Results: Both yoga (n = 9) and control (n = 6) participants showed significant decreases in reexperiencing symptoms, with no significant between-group differences. Secondary within-group analyses of a self-selected wait-list yoga group (n = 7) showed significant reductions in PTSD symptoms after yoga participation, in contrast to their control group participation. Consistent with current literature regarding high rates of PTSD treatment dropout for veterans, this study faced challenges retaining participants across conditions. Conclusion: These results are consistent with recent literature indicating that yoga may have potential as a PTSD therapy in a veteran or military population. However, additional larger sample size trials are necessary to confirm this conclusion. C 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Clin. Psychol. 74:93-108, 2018.
This study evaluated the effects of yoga on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, resilience, and mindfulness in military personnel. Participants completing the yoga intervention were 12 current or former military personnel who met the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition-Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR) diagnostic criteria for PTSD. Results were also benchmarked against other military intervention studies of PTSD using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS; Blake et al., 2000) as an outcome measure. Results of within-subject analyses supported the study's primary hypothesis that yoga would reduce PTSD symptoms (d = 0.768; t = 2.822; p = .009) but did not support the hypothesis that yoga would significantly increase mindfulness (d = 0.392; t = -0.9500; p = .181) and resilience (d = 0.270; t = -1.220; p = .124) in this population. Benchmarking results indicated that, as compared with the aggregated treatment benchmark (d = 1.074) obtained from published clinical trials, the current study's treatment effect (d = 0.768) was visibly lower, and compared with the waitlist control benchmark (d = 0.156), the treatment effect in the current study was visibly higher.
Researchers have identified disclosure as an important part of sexual assault recovery among civilian survivors. However, few researchers have examined the process of military sexual trauma (MST) disclosure, including the barriers and facilitators, positive and negative reactions from disclosure recipients, and positive and negative impacts of disclosure on survivors. Twenty-three women veteran MST survivors completed semi-structured qualitative interviews that assessed disclosure experiences; responses were coded using directed content analysis. Among the 20 women veterans who disclosed MST (87%), most volunteered information that they had disclosed to informal (74%, n = 17), military (70%, n = 16), and medical sources (52%, n = 12). Among women who reported that they disclosed MST to military personnel, all reported at least one negative reaction to the disclosure, including 50% ( n = 8) who reported perceived retaliation for disclosure. Women who reported they disclosed to military personnel identified some barriers (e.g., feared consequences) that women who disclosed to non-military personnel did not. We suggest that the responses of recipients to disclosure may contribute to the impact on participants, including dissatisfaction and disillusionment with the military. We discuss unique aspects of the military context that may contribute to negative reactions. Practitioners can use this information to increase empathy and understanding of the complexity of disclosure and to help survivors process and contextualize these experiences during therapy. Additional online materials for this article are available on PWQ’s website at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/0361684318796783
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) clinics in the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) often provide psychoeducational or skill-building groups to prepare veterans for trauma-focused PTSD treatments. However, there has been limited evaluation of the effectiveness of this phase-based approach for treatment engagement and symptom reduction. Participants included 575 veterans seeking treatment for PTSD whose treatment outcomes were assessed in a VA outpatient PTSD clinic staffed by mental health professionals and trainees. Participants completed self-report measures of baseline characteristics and psychiatric symptoms as part of routine PTSD clinic treatment. We tested the association of preparatory group treatment with engagement in and treatment response to subsequent trauma-focused psychotherapies, cognitive processing therapy (CPT) and prolonged exposure therapy (PE), which are designated by VA as evidence-based psychotherapies (EBP). Following participation in preparatory treatments, 94/391 (24%) of veterans engaged in a subsequent trauma-focused EBP (CPT or PE). Relative to patients who had previously completed a preparatory group, patients initiating a trauma-focused EBP without having first attended preparatory PTSD treatment had similar rates of trauma-focused EBP completion and better treatment response, as measured by decreases on the PTSD Checklist for Diagnostic and Statistical
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.