NCT01623219

Community-Based Telemedicine to Reduce Risk to Georgia Veterans With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Community-Based Telemedicine to Reduce Risk to Georgia Veterans With PTSD

• Status: Withdrawn
• Phase: N/A
• Study type: Interventional
• Enrollment: 0 (actual)
• Sponsor: Emory University · Academic / Other
• Sex: All
• Age: 18 Years – 65 Years
• Healthy volunteers: Accepted

Summary

The investigator proposes to examine treatment for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan provided through telemedicine which connects patients to doctors in different locations using the internet. In this study, Veterans will receive prolonged exposure therapy (PE). This treatment has been shown to be effective in reducing PTSD symptoms. For this study 9 weekly 90 minute sessions will be given over a period of up to 3 months. The first 2 sessions of each treatment will involve education, rational and treatment preparation. Sessions 3-9 will consist of recounting the traumatic event out loud and repeatedly. The purpose of this study is to determine if this treatment is effective when given through telehealth. To this end, the investigators propose to enroll up to 20 individuals who will access the investigators services through the GA telehealth network who has hundreds of telehealth sites across the state of Georgia. Patients will go to these sites to access the investigators therapists using GA telehealth equipment. The investigators hypothesize that PE delivered remotely through telemedicine will work to reduce the symptoms of PTSD.

Conditions

• Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD

Interventions

Type	Name	Description
BEHAVIORAL	Prolonged Exposure Therapy	Exposure therapy refers to several cognitive behavioral treatment programs that involve confronting feared but safe thoughts, images, objects, situations, or activities in order to reduce unrealistic fear and anxiety. Exposure therapy for PTSD involves prolonged, imaginal exposure to the patient's traumatic memory and in vivo (in real life) exposure to trauma reminders. Prolonged exposure (PE) is a specific exposure therapy program that consists of five components: (1) psychoeducation (2) training in controlled breathing, (3) prolonged imaginal exposure to the trauma memory conducted in therapy sessions and repeated as homework, (4) prolonged in vivo exposure implemented as homework, and (5) processing of the traumatic material to correct maladaptive cognitions.

Timeline

• Start date: 2012-03-01
• Primary completion: 2013-01-01
• First posted: 2012-06-19
• Last updated: 2015-08-19