Online Psychoeducation for the Prevention of PTSD

Summary

Research on decreasing safety behaviors in therapy has been restricted to treatments for other anxiety disorders and has not included PTSD. In order to address this gap and to develop a widely accessible, cost-effective prevention, an internet-based, three-arm randomized secondary PTSD prevention trial is proposed. Self-help psychoeducation on common reactions to trauma and eliminating safety behaviors will be employed for participants who have recently experienced a traumatic event. Participants will be randomized to receive (a) psychoeducation on trauma symptoms only, (b) combined psychoeducation on trauma symptoms and eliminating safety behaviors, or (c) monitoring only control. All participants will monitor safety behaviors and trauma symptoms weekly for eight weeks. Psychoeducation materials will be handouts and videos administered online via REDCap.

It is hypothesized that participants in both psychoeducation conditions will have a lower incidence of PTSD, threat appraisal, and safety behaviors than participants in the monitoring-only control. It is also hypothesized that participants who receive combined psychoeducation on trauma symptoms and fading safety behaviors will have a lower incidence of PTSD, threat appraisal, and safety behaviors at Weeks 4 and 8 than will participants who receive psychoeducation on trauma symptoms only or participants in the monitoring-only control. It is further hypothesized that the effects of combined psychoeducation on preventing PTSD and threat appraisal will be mediated by decreased use of safety behaviors. Finally, it is hypothesized that combined psychoeducation on trauma symptoms and fading safety behaviors will be more effective in preventing PTSD for participants with higher levels of safety behaviors or threat appraisal at baseline. If effective, this secondary prevention program could be distributed widely to people who have recently experienced a trauma to prevent their development of PTSD.

Conditions

• Psychoeducation on Trauma Reactions
• Psychoeducation on Safety Behaviors and How to Fade Them
• Monitoring-only Control

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Psychoeducation on trauma reactions

The psychoeducation handout and video on trauma symptoms will discuss reactions that are common after experiencing a trauma.

BEHAVIORAL

Psychoeducation on safety behaviors

The psychoeducation handout and video on safety behaviors will discuss safety behaviors that are common in PTSD and tips for how to eliminate them.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Texas at Austin

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Michael J Telch, PhD · The University of Texas at Austin

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

65 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2020-02-01

Primary Completion

2022-01-01

Completion

2023-01-01