Multifamily Group to Reduce Marital Conflict and Disability in Veterans With mTBI (MFG-mTBI)

This is an interventional treatment trial for Mild Traumatic Brain Injury focused on measuring Stress Disorders, Post-traumatic, Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, Veterans Health, Veterans, Spouses, Couples, Psychotherapy, Group, Depression, Couples Therapy, Family Therapy, PTSD, posttraumatic stress disorder Read More

Inclusion Criteria:

Eligible Veterans must have a diagnosis of mTBI in accordance with the VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Concussion/Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: injury or concussion associated with at least one of the following: brief (< 30 minutes) loss of consciousness or altered state of consciousness or post-traumatic amnesia for < 24 hours following the injury, or they either meet diagnostic criteria for PTSD based on the MINI or have trauma- or CS of at least moderate severity, as defined by either: a) PCL score >34; or b) CES score of >23.

• The TBI must be either blast-related or attributable to another discrete event (e.g., fall, fight, injury) sustained during deployment in the OEF/OIF era.
• Post-concussive symptoms (e.g., sleep or memory problems, headache) must not be attributable to a subsequent injury or other pre-existing or concurrent neurologic disorder:
• Eligible Veterans must also have a consenting, qualifying spouse/cohabiting partner and a Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) (Nasreddine,2005) score 19.
• The 30-item MoCA screens for impairment in specific areas of cognitive functioning deemed necessary for participation in a 90-minute, structured group including attention and concentration, executive functions, language and conceptual thinking.
• We have specified a MoCA cut-off at the lower end of the range for mild cognitive dysfunction (19), in order to exclude Veterans with severe memory and/or other cognitive deficits, while admitting those with more mild deficits, as these represent our target population, i.e. Veterans with a history of mTBI.

Inclusion criteria-partners: Legally married to or co-residing with Veteran for at least 6 months, with no plans for divorce or separation.

Exclusion Criteria:

Exclusion criteria for Veterans and partners are:

• a lifetime diagnosis of a major psychiatric disorder (schizophrenia, schizoaffective or bipolar disorder with psychotic features) or active psychosis based on the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV-TR (SCID-L) (First et al., 2007).
• alcohol or drug abuse or dependence with past 6 months defined by a Short Michigan Alcoholism Screening Test (SMAST) (Selzer, 1975) 3, based on the recommended cut-off for TBI survivors (Gentilello et al.,1995) or a Drug Abuse Screening Test-10 (DAST-10) (Skinner, 1982) 3.
• "severe" inter-partner violence as defined by the revised 20-item Conflict Tactics Scale Short Form (CTS2S) (Straus & Douglas, 2004).
• a suicide attempt within the past 6 months (aborted and interrupted attempts) as assessed by the Columbia Suicide Severity Rating scale (C-SSRS).
• medical condition or life event (e.g., ongoing or pending legal action in another state) that would compromise participation.
• participation of either the caregiver or Veteran in another psychosocial intervention trial or couples' treatment six months prior to or during study or follow-up. Participation in individual psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy are permitted: use of and starting/stopping these services will be tracked. Participants will be screened for inclusion/exclusion as described above immediately after giving consent.