Active clinical trials for "Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic"

The unmet need for effective addiction treatment within the criminal justice system "represents a significant opportunity to intervene with a high-risk population" according to NIDA's 2016-2020 strategic plan. The plan also encourages the development and evaluation of implementation strategies that address the needs of the criminal justice system. The proposed research will be conducted as part of Dr. Zielinski's Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development Award (K23), which aims to: 1) advance knowledge on implementation of a gold-standard psychotherapy for trauma, Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), in the prison setting and 2) examine whether prison-delivered CPT reduces drug use, psychiatric symptoms, and recidivism compared to a control condition (a coping-focused therapy). These foci have been selected because severe trauma exposure, substance use, and justice-involvement overwhelmingly co-occur in prison populations. The three specific aims in this research are: 1) Use formative evaluation to identify factors that may influence implementation and uptake of CPT in prisons, 2) Adapt CPT for incarcerated drug users and develop a facilitation-based implementation guide to support its uptake, and 3) conduct a participant-randomized Hybrid II trial to assess effectiveness and implementation outcomes of CPT with incarcerated drug users. Participants will include people who have been incarcerated (pre- and post-release from incarceration) and prison stakeholders who will be purposively sampled based on their role in implementation of CPT and other programs. Anticipated enrollment across all three Aims is 244 adult men and women.

Suicide is a national crisis, especially among older Veterans for whom evidence-based suicide prevention efforts are lacking. This proposal responds to the national priority to develop and improve interventions for suicide prevention, with a focus on at-risk older Veterans. The randomized control trial will compare VA usual care, which is suicide safety planning, with brief Problem Solving Therapy and suicide safety planning. This study uses Problem Solving Therapy because it has support from our pilot data and from secondary data analysis from other studies for reducing late life suicide risk. This treatment also has support for alleviating two key risk factors for late life suicide risk, functional disability and executive dysfunction, and thus this study will examine how older Veterans with varying levels of functional disability and executive functioning respond to treatment to inform future targeted implementation. In accordance with national priorities, existing infrastructure in Problem Solving Training could be expanded to support more rapid VA-wide implementation.

Pregnant women in South Africa (SA) are at high risk of HIV acquisition. Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) use during pregnancy is both safe and effective in preventing HIV. However, posttraumatic stress (associated with intimate partner violence and/or other traumas) and depression negatively impact PrEP adherence among women in SA. Addressing posttraumatic stress and depression will likely improve PrEP adherence and persistence (i.e., sustained PrEP adherence over time) during pregnancy and breastfeeding, which are periods of dramatically increased HIV risk. The overarching goal of this proposal is to develop and test the feasibility and acceptability of a cognitive behavioral intervention that targets common underlying factors of posttraumatic stress and depression to improve PrEP adherence and persistence during pregnancy and the postpartum transition. The specific aims of the project are to (1) explore the mechanisms by which posttraumatic stress and depression impact PrEP adherence and persistence during pregnancy via qualitative interviews; (2) develop a brief PrEP adherence and persistence intervention (~4 sessions) that reduces the negative impact of psychological mechanisms common to posttraumatic stress and depression on PrEP use, and builds behavioral skills to improve self-care; and (3) evaluate the feasibility, acceptability, and signals of preliminary efficacy of the intervention, which will be integrated into antenatal care, in a pilot randomized controlled trial. All data will be collected in the Midwife Obstetrics Unit (MOU) in Gugulethu, a peri-urban settlement and former township community outside of Cape Town, SA.

Efficacy of a Multi-level School Intervention for LGBTQ Youth

This open-label, lead-in Phase 2 study is intended to gather supportive data on the safety and effectiveness of manualized MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for PTSD. This will be the first study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy in Europe using the CAPS-5 as a primary outcome measure to confirm assumptions made for statistical power calculations using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale for DSM-4 (CAPS-4) which support planned Phase 3 clinical trials. This study will gather supportive data on the safety and effectiveness of manualized MDMA-assisted psychotherapy as a treatment for PTSD and provide clinical supervision to planned Phase 3 therapy teams. This study will also be the first multi-site study of MDMA-assisted psychotherapy for PTSD in Europe and will explore reproducibility of findings from FDA-regulated trials in a multi-site format to further confirm the Phase 3 study design. This study will compare the effects of two open-label manualized Experimental Sessions of psychotherapy assisted by flexible doses of MDMA. Initial doses per Experimental Session include 80 mg or 120 mg of MDMA compounded with lactose, followed 1.5 to 2 hours later by a supplemental half-dose (40 mg or 60 mg). Total amounts of MDMA to be administered per Experimental Session range from 80 mg to 180 mg.

This is a research study to examine the effectiveness of a brief screening method that may predict which people with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or depression are most likely to show a positive response to selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) medications. Participants will be recruited over approximately 5.25 years, until at least 94 participants complete the 17 week study.

PTSD (posttraumatic stress disorder) and associated mental health conditions affect both veterans and their family members. This study investigates whether group therapy using EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques) and CBT (Cognitive Behavior Therapy) produce reductions in PTSD and comorbid symptoms.

The proposed study will determine the feasibility, tolerability, and acceptability of a study that tests: 1) personalized treatment delivery (i.e., module sequencing and treatment discontinuation timing) aimed at increasing the efficiency of care, and 2) the research protocol designed to evaluate the effects of this personalized care. A sample of 60 participants with heterogeneous anxiety disorders (and comorbid conditions, including depression) will be enrolled in a pilot sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART). Patients will be randomly assigned to one of three sequencing conditions: transdiagnostic treatment administered in its standard module order, module sequences that prioritize capitalizing on relative strengths, and module sequences that prioritize compensating for relative weaknesses. Next, after 6 sessions, participants will be randomly assigned to either continue or discontinue treatment to evaluate post-treatment change at varying levels of target engagement. This proposal will enable us to 1) test the feasibility, acceptability, and tolerability of the research protocol, treatment sequencing conditions, and early treatment discontinuation, 2) determine whether a preliminary signal that capitalization or compensation module sequencing improves treatment efficiency exists, and 3) explore preliminary associations between core process engagement at treatment discontinuation and later symptom improvement. The proposed study, and the subsequent research it will support, will inform evidence-based decision rules to make existing treatments more efficient, ultimately reducing patient costs and increasing the mental health service system's capacity to address the needs of more individuals.

This study will provide preliminary estimates of safety and efficacy of the NightWare digital therapeutic system (iPhone + Apple watch + proprietary application) for the treatment of nightmare disorder associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)-related sleep disturbance and the impact of improved sleep with the NightWare digital therapeutic system. The investigators hypothesize that the NightWare digital therapeutic system will significantly improve sleep quality in participants with PTSD-Related nightmares and poor sleep quality.

Co-occurring post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) is the most common response to trauma; it is associated with poor clinical outcomes and substantial human disability. Veterans with both PTSD and MDD (PTSD+MDD) have been shown to be at much greater suicidal risk than individuals with only one of these disorders. Ketamine given as repeated infusions has been shown to be effective in rapidly reducing PTSD and MDD symptoms in treatment resistant PTSD+MDD individuals. However, knowledge about the mechanisms underlying comorbid PTSD and MDD remain limited. The purpose of this study is to use repeated ketamine infusions as a probe to validate a model of PTSD+MDD that focuses on neuroanatomy and executive functioning.