Research

Determine whether therapy sessions for a proven PTSD treatment, Prolonged Exposure (PE), can be shortened to 60 minutes from the standard 90 minutes without compromising PE's high success rate. Improve understanding of how PE helps patients recover and how to enhance its benefits by observing what factors are related to PTSD symptom reduction during therapy, utilizing patient and provider reports as well as measurable physiological markers of stress.

Determine the efficacy of the medication doxazosin in reducing the severity of posttraumatic stress disorder and alcohol/substance use in veterans with both PTSD and alcohol/substance use disorder; establish guidelines for measuring progress during clinical trials involving veterans with those disorders.

Evaluate the safety and efficacy of the drug ketamine in treating posttraumatic stress disorder and depression in active duty military personnel and veterans with PTSD who do not respond to treatment with antidepressant medications.

Evaluate the effectiveness of a Complementary and Integrative Health pain management program for veterans with chronic, polymorbid pain and compare that against the current standard treatment methods. The goal is to develop a blueprint for a drug-free alternative for pain management that decreases use of opioid pain medications in veterans who suffer from pain and trauma symptoms.

Improve understanding of behavior patterns of patients with posttraumatic stress disorder to guide development of improved therapies for PTSD.

Identify specific genetic biomarkers that can be used to detect the presence of PTSD, to determine who successfully responds to treatment, and to identify individuals at risk for developing PTSD.

Working with couples in which a partner suffers from chronic musculoskeletal pain, determine the feasibility of Conjoint Therapy for Pain Management. Assess how well the therapy helps to improve pain-related functioning. Measure the therapy’s contribution to couples’ psychological wellbeing, relationship satisfaction, and communication with each other.

Working with service members and veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), evaluate the feasibility and effectiveness of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) delivered in the standard, face-to-face, in-office format as compared to CPT delivered in a patient's home, either in-person or via video teleconference (similar to Skype). Determine whether in-home therapy enhances treatment and improves patient outcomes, and whether it can be delivered to special populations, such as homebound patients and those in rural areas.

Examine whether a form of narrative therapy in which patients write about their trauma is as effective in treating PTSD as a gold-standard form of talk therapy. Examine whether the narrative therapy, with a shorter course of treatment and fewer time demands, leads to increased patient retention and overall treatment satisfaction.

Improve understanding of the psychosocial needs of active duty military families with young children specific to deployment-related separation; adapt and test Strong Families Strong Forces Parenting Program, a preventive intervention to promote resiliency in active duty military families with young children through the deployment cycle, compared to an alternate intervention called Strong Parents Self-Care; compare the costs of achieving benefit from the two programs.