Reintegration: The Role of Spouse Telephone BATTLEMIND Pilot Study

This study will expand the Department of Defense (DoD) one time, face-to-face post deployment BATTLEMIND training for spouses of Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Guard/Reserve service members into year-long, telephone groups focusing on education, skills building and support. The goal is to build spouses' resilience to cope with reintegration, help them serve as a support system for returning service members, and ease the transition for families post-deployment.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Combat Disorders; Stress Disorders; Support Groups; Military Spouses
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Telephone support groups

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 86
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• United States
  • Tennessee
    • Memphis, Tennessee, United States, 38104
      • Memphis VA Medical Center

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: Child; Adult; Older Adult
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

1. have a spouse who participated in OEF/OIF and is at least 1 month post-deployment;
2. if not married, must have lived as married for at least one year;
3. live with the service member when not deployed;
4. have been a spouse/significant other throughout the service member's deployment period;
5. and have a telephone.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. current diagnosis of schizophrenia or other major mental illness;
2. auditory impairment that would make telephone use difficult; or
3. service member refusal of assent for spouse to participate.

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: Treatment
• Allocation: N/A
• Interventional Model: Single Group Assignment
• Masking: None (Open Label)

Number of Arms

1

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Intervention / Treatment

Experimental: Telephone support; 12 telephone support group sessions based on the letters of the word BATTLEMIND

Behavioral: Telephone support groups; There was one intervention. Participants were enrolled in one of 14 telephone groups (each with a trained Group Leader and 6 participants) will focus on education, training in and practice of coping skills and cognitive restructuring (identifying and re-shaping negative and destructive thoughts), and support through 12 hour-long structured sessions. The content, modeled on Soldier BATTLEMIND, targets readjustment concepts based on the letters of BATTLEMIND, including Bonds, Adding and subtracting family roles, Taking control, Talking it out, Loyalty and commitment, Emotional balance, Mental health and readiness, Independence and interdependence, Navigating the system, Denial of self and a concluding session entitled Moving forward.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Spouse Self-report of Depression	Depression measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ)-9 at baseline, six and 12 months. Scores range from 0-27 with lower scores indicating less depressive symptoms.	Baseline, 6 months, and 12 months
Anxiety	Anxiety measured with the Generalized Anxiety Disorder -7 (GAD-7)measured at baseline, six and 12 months. Scores range from 0-21, with lower scores indicating fewer anxiety symptoms.	baseline, 6 months and 12 months
Quality of Marriage	Measure of marriage quality using Quality Marriage Index at baseline, six and 12 months. Scores range from 6-45 with higher scores indicating better quality of marriage.	Baseline, 6 and 12 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
Family Coping	Family problem solving measured at baseline, six and 12 months with the F-COPES measure. Scores range from 29-145 with higher scores indicating better coping.	Baseline, 6 months and 12 months
Spouse Social Support	Support measured with the Social Support Index at baseline, six and 12 months. Scores range from 0-68 with higher scores indicating better social support.	baseline, 6 months, and 12 months
Family Communication	Family communication measured with the Family Problem Solving Communication scale at baseline, six and 12 months. Scores range from 0-30 with higher scores indicating better communication.	baseline, 6 months, and 12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Memphis VA Medical Center
• Collaborators: United States Department of Defense
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Linda O Nichols, PhD, Memphis VA Medical Center

Publications and helpful links

Helpful Links

• Information and contacts

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: September 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): July 1, 2011
• Study Completion (Actual): November 1, 2011

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: March 25, 2009
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 25, 2009
• First Posted (Estimate): March 27, 2009

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): June 28, 2017
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: June 1, 2017
• Last Verified: June 1, 2017

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: military; social support; OEF/OIF; families; reintegration; spouses; post deployment
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Pathologic Processes; Trauma and Stressor Related Disorders; Stress Disorders, Traumatic; Disease; Combat Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: PT074804