Date of Award

8-2012

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Departmental Honors

Department

Psychology

Abstract

With ongoing military operations spanning the globe, a new population of combat veterans is emerging. Posttraumatic stress disorder is an enormous issue for veterans, and knowing the status of psychosocial treatments for it seems necessary. The current study seeks to provide a more comprehensive description of the current status of outcome research for combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder, including treatments being utilized, attrition rates, percent responders/nonresponder, and population conflict (i.e., OIF, OEF, Vietnam). The literature was systematically reviewed and 10 randomized controlled trials were identified that focused solely on veteran populations with posttraumatic stress disorder. Treatments utilized in these studies included Trauma Maintenance Therapy, Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy, as well as others. The average dropout rate of the studies examined was 21 %, with rates up to 38%. Furthermore, 50% of the studies reviewed utilized "completer" data, instead of the Intent-to-Treat (ITT) model which has notable implications for the generalizability of the findings. Non-responders at post ranged from 19% to 94%, with similar results at follow-up. The implications of these results are discussed and recommendations for future directions are provided.

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Faculty Mentor

Michael Twohig

Departmental Honors Advisor

Scott Bates