Abstract
Objectives: Primary care (PC) patients typically do not receive adequate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment. This study tested if a brief mindfulness training (BMT) offered in PC can decrease PTSD severity. Method: VA PC patients with PTSD (N = 62) were recruited for a randomized clinical trial comparing PCBMT with PC treatment as usual. PCBMT is a 4-session program adapted from mindfulness-based stress reduction. Results: PTSD severity decreased in both conditions, although PCBMT completers reported significantly larger decreases in PTSD and depression from pre- to posttreatment and maintained gains at the 8-week follow-up compared with the control group. Exploratory analyses revealed that the describing, nonjudging, and acting with awareness facets of mindfulness may account for decreases in PTSD. Conclusion: Our data support preliminary efficacy of BMT for Veterans with PTSD. Whether PCBMT facilitates engagement into, or improves outcomes of, full-length empirically supported treatment for PTSD remains to be evaluated.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 179-193 |
Number of pages | 15 |
Journal | Journal of Clinical Psychology |
Volume | 72 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Mar 1 2016 |
Keywords
- Brief intervention
- Mindfulness
- Primary care
- PTSD
- Veterans
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Clinical Psychology
- Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)