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


Author: Possemato K1,2, Bergen-Cico D1,2, Treatman S1,3, Allen C1,4,5, Wade M1, Pigeon W1,6,5.

Affiliation: 1Upstate New York Veterans' Affairs Healthcare System. 2Syracuse University. 3Crouse Hospital. 4Northern Illinois University. 5University of Rochester Medical Center School of Medicine and Dentistry. 6Canandaigua Veterans' Affairs Medical Center.
Conference/Journal: J Clin Psychol. 
Date published: 2015 Nov 27
Other:
  Special Notes: doi: 10.1002/jclp.22241   ,  Word Count: 160  
    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.

© 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

KEYWORDS:

PTSD; Veterans; brief intervention; mindfulness; primary care

PMID: 26613203