Examining the Effectiveness of an Early Psychological Intervention to Prevent Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

September 7, 2016 updated by: Barbara O. Rothbaum, PhD, Emory University

Effects of Early Psychological Intervention to Prevent PTSD

This study will examine the use of prolonged exposure therapy on people who have recently experienced a trauma to prevent them from developing post-traumatic stress disorder.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disorder that forms in response to a traumatic event. The symptoms of PTSD, such as hyper-arousal and re-experiencing the traumatic event, are common in all people who have recently experienced a trauma, but those who develop PTSD continue to have these symptoms more than a month after the trauma. Some researchers believe that developing PTSD is the result of a failure to adequately recover from the trauma. This study will determine whether providing a common form of treatment for PTSD, prolonged exposure (PE) therapy, to people who have recently experienced trauma will prevent them from developing PTSD. The study will also seek to identify predictive markers, such as hormone levels and genes, for developing PTSD.

Participation in this study will last 3 months. Participants will first undergo an evaluation session that will include an interview, questionnaires, and a medical chart review for blood pressure and heart rate measurements taken after their trauma. They will then be randomly assigned to receive either PE therapy or assessments only. Participants receiving PE therapy will complete three weekly treatment sessions, with the first occurring immediately after the evaluation session. Treatment will involve reviewing memories of a recent trauma out loud with a therapist and audio-recording these discussions for review at home. All participants will undergo assessments 1 and 3 months after the initial evaluation session. The 1-month assessment will involve an interview and questionnaires similar to the evaluation session, and the 3-month session will involve only a brief phone interview. Some participants will also be asked to complete an optional part of the study in which they provide two saliva samples to researchers: one to measure stress hormones and one to test for genetic bases of trauma response.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

139

Phase

  • Phase 1

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • United States
    • Georgia
      • Atlanta, Georgia, United States, 30303
        • Grady Memorial Hospital, Emergency Department

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years to 65 years (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Presenting to the emergency department of Emory University School of Medicine/Grady Memorial Hospital for rape in the past 72 hours
  • Meets DSM-IV diagnostic criterion A in which both of the following are present: (i) The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (ii) The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror
  • Speaks and understands spoken English
  • Can see the assessment forms, hear instructions, and function at an emotional and intellectual level sufficient to allow accurate completion of all assessment instruments
  • No significant traumatic injuries, as determined by the physician

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Current or history of mania, schizophrenia, or other psychoses
  • Current (past month) prominent suicidal ideation or recent (past 3 months) parasuicidal behavior or other self-injurious behavior, such as low lethality cutting
  • Current (past month) substance dependence; people who meet criteria for current substance abuse but not dependence, or past dependence and have been in remission for at least 1 month are eligible.
  • Experienced a loss of consciousness for more than 5 minutes as a result of injuries sustained during the trauma
  • Intoxicated, altered, or highly distressed to the degree that accurate completion of the study assessments or participation in study procedures is not possible
  • Blood alcohol level above .08, determined by breathalyzer in the emergency department
  • Not alert, oriented, and coherent
  • In severe pain, active labor, or respiratory distress or hemodynamically compromised in any way

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Prevention
  • Allocation: Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: Single

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
No Intervention: 1
Participants will receive assessments only.
Experimental: 2
Participants will receive prolonged exposure therapy.
Behavioral: Prolonged Exposure (PE) Therapy
Three PE sessions lasting 1 hour each, delivered 1 week apart

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
PTSD Symptom Scale- I (PSS)
Time Frame: Measured 4 and 12 weeks post-trauma
Measured 4 and 12 weeks post-trauma

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Emory University

Collaborators

National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Barbara O. Rothbaum, PhD, Emory University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

April 1, 2008

Primary Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2012

Study Completion (Actual)

January 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 7, 2009

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 7, 2009

First Posted (Estimate)

May 8, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

September 8, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

September 7, 2016

Last Verified

September 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • IRB00009260
  • DATR AD-TS (Other Identifier: Other)
  • R34MH083078 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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