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Blood Pressure, Heart Rate Variability & Sleep in Veterans With PTSD

NCT01920451 · Status: TERMINATED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 19

Last updated 2014-08-06

No results posted yet for this study

Summary

Sleep disturbance and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common conditions in returning Veterans, and both conditions are known to increase the risk of cardiovascular disease. Research suggests that those with insomnia are at triple the risk of high blood pressure as compared to normal sleepers, and that having both insomnia and short sleep increases this risk to more than five times that of normal sleepers. These research findings suggest that recently deployed Veterans with insomnia may be at increased risk of developing high blood pressure, and this possibility is consistent with previous research. Vietnam era Veterans with combat-related PTSD assessed in 1985 were twice as likely to have died of early-onset heart disease relative to their non-PTSD counterparts when reassessed in 2000.

Evidence for impaired cardiac function in individuals with PTSD has been demonstrated across several studies as well. Compared to individuals without PTSD, those with PTSD seem to have lesser reaction to stress in terms of both heart rate and heart beat pattern. However, there has been very little research examining the impact of behavioral sleep interventions on health outcomes, and even fewer that are specific to a PTSD or Veteran population. The purpose of this study is to determine if treating insomnia results in improved blood pressure and cardiac function in recently deployed Veterans with PTSD. The findings of this research will serve as pilot data for a future grant application testing the efficacy of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI) for reducing cardiovascular risk in Veterans with PTSD using a full-scale randomized trial design. We are hypothesizing that improved sleep will be significantly associated with improved blood pressure and increased heart rate variability (improved autonomic function) in adults receiving CBTI compared to those in a wait-list control condition.

Conditions

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBTI)

See arm description.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • Durham VA Medical Center

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • Christi S Ulmer, PhD · Durham VAMC

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age
21 Years
Max Age
65 Years
Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2013-08-31
Primary Completion
2014-08-31
Completion
2014-08-31

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

More Related Trials

Entities

Diseases

Read the full study record

This page highlights key information. For complete eligibility criteria, study locations, investigator contacts, and the full protocol, visit the original record on ClinicalTrials.gov.

View NCT01920451 on ClinicalTrials.gov