Research

Evaluate the efficacy intramuscular (IM) ketamine, Crisis Response Planning, a combination of the two, or IM ketamine and safety planning placebos for the rapid reduction of suicidal ideation in patients treated in an emergency department.

Leverage existing data in the STRONG STAR Repository with over 7,000 previous research participants, coupled with present-day long-term follow-up assessments with those individuals, to better understand the long-term psychological health impact, functioning, and treatment outcomes in military personnel who deployed in support of post-9/11 combat operations.

Evaluate how effectively brain video games, brain stimulation, and the two combined improve cognitive function in military service members and veterans with mild traumatic brain injury.

Evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and preliminary benefit of intranasal esketamine delivered in combination with massed Prolonged Exposure as a standard of care for PTSD.

Identify prognostic biological and clinical markers of chronic consequences of repeated mild traumatic brain injury (rmTBI) and military occupational specialty (MOS)-related repeated head injury (RHI) exposure.

Improve understanding of mild traumatic brain injury and BRAIN Health by evaluating the effects of repetitive mTBI on BRAIN Health using a quantitative, multidomain clinical and blood-based biomarker assessment.

Evaluate Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) and Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (BBT-I) in an active military population suffering from insomnia after experiencing a mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI). Determine the optimal behavioral insomnia treatment in this population; explore whether insomnia treatment improves other TBI-related symptoms; and explore if insomnia treatment improves brain functioning.

Evaluate the efficacy of Crisis Response Planning as a secondary suicide prevention intervention compared with Treatment as Usual among military service members who are at elevated risk for suicide due to their history of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI).

Determine if the addition of Crisis Response Planning to massed Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD reduces suicide attempts among military personnel with diagnosed or subthreshold PTSD and suicide ideation; identify early markers of treatment response and relapse of suicide risk; and identify treatment content and design features that influence treatment effectiveness and acceptability.

Conduct a randomized crossover clinical trial with service members and veterans with comorbid mTBI-related tinnitus and PTSD to (1) determine the directionality between the two disorders, (2) clarify the best sequence of therapeutic interventions to alleviate symptoms, and (3) identify neurobiological markers of symptom improvement, potentially to be used as neuromodulatory targets for brain stimulation treatments.