Page 14 - Layout 1

MILITARY
MEDICINE
continued from page 13
Following are some of the most significant findings to date that
have been published or soon will be published related to the treat-
ment of PTSD and commonly co-occurring conditions:
• A high-impact publication that received significant national at-
tention showing that a brief form of cognitive-behavioral ther-
apy reduced suicide attempts by 60 percent among high-risk
military personnel (Rudd et al., 2015).
• A publication showing that Cognitive Processing Therapy can
be effectively delivered in a group format (Resick et al., 2015), that influence both the development and treatment of combat-re-
making CPT an important option in settings where therapists
are limited.
• A highly publicized paper in JAMA Psychiatry comparing group
and individual Cognitive Processing Therapy for PTSD, demon-
strating that individual CPT leads to greater and quicker reduc-
tions in PTSD symptoms (Resick et al., 2017).
• A paper reporting that long-term reductions in PTSD symp-
toms were maintained for six months and one year after treat-
ment with an adapted form of Prolonged Exposure delivered in
military primary care settings (pilot study findings, Cigrang et
al., 2016; RCT findings, Cigrang et al., manuscript submitted
for publication).
• A paper reporting on the efficacy of both in-person and Inter-
net-delivered Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia with
14 San Antonio Medicine • August 2017
active duty (Taylor et al., in press), findings that could facilitate
effective, non-medication-based treatment for one of the most
common problems of service members following deployment.
• A paper reporting on the effectiveness of Prolonged Exposure
for PTSD among active military when delivered in its traditional
format and in a massed format, delivered daily over the course
of two weeks (Foa et al., manuscript submitted for publication).
Other STRONG STAR publications to date have shared impor-
tant findings from preclinical and epidemiological studies on factors
lated behavioral health problems, on common data elements for
PTSD research, and other topics. Even these are just the tip of the
iceberg, since over the next several years, STRONG STAR and CAP
are expected to produce an unprecedented body of scientific knowl-
edge that will significantly advance the treatment of combat PTSD
and related conditions. In this way, results of these studies have had
and will continue to have a significant impact on science, public
health, military policy, and most importantly, on the lives of military
service members, veterans and their families.
Alan Peterson, Lt Col, U.S. Air Force, Ret., is Director of the
STRONG STAR program at UT Health San Antonio.