A Randomized Clinical Trial of Primary Care Brief Mindfulness Training for Veterans With PTSD

Kyle Possemato, Dessa K Bergen-Cico, Scott Treatman, Christy Allen, Michael Wade, Wilfred Pigeon

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

78 Scopus citations

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 languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)179-193
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Clinical Psychology
Volume72
Issue number3
DOIs
StatePublished - Mar 1 2016

Keywords

  • Brief intervention
  • Mindfulness
  • Primary care
  • PTSD
  • Veterans

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Clinical Psychology
  • Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous)

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