Trial Outcomes & Findings for Thriving in the Midst of Moral Pain: The Acceptability and Feasibility of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Moral Injury (ACT-MI) Among Warzone Veterans (NCT NCT03760731)

Thriving in the Midst of Moral Pain: The Acceptability and Feasibility of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Moral Injury (ACT-MI) Among Warzone Veterans

The investigators will assess the proportion of participants who find ACT-MI acceptable, defined as 70% of participants scoring 24 on the Client Satisfaction Questionnaire (CSQ). The total for the CSQ can range from 8- to 32-points. Higher scores on the CSQ indicate greater treatment acceptability.

The Narrative Evaluation of Intervention Interview (NEII) will be used to inform any necessary revisions to the intervention and refinement of the treatment manual. The NEII is a semi-structured qualitative interview assessing the perspective of each participant about the impact of the intervention, helpful and unhelpful components, and comparison to other interventions. The NEII will be used to assess acceptability and inform revisions to the treatment manuals. The NEII includes domains related to description of intervention process, description of intervention outcome, evaluation of intervention process, and evaluation of intervention outcome. Data provided reflects the number of participants who provided perspective feedback.

The Reasons for Termination scale is a self-report measure which assesses the impact of common reasons patients terminate therapy. The scale will be used to assess treatment acceptability. Participants who terminate treatment early and their therapists will be asked to independently rate their reasons for termination in 19 domains. Possible total scores on this scale range from 10 to 190-points. Higher scores indicate that the reason for termination had a very great influence on the participant's termination of therapy.

The Valued Living Questionnaire is a self-report measure that assesses participants' values as well as the consistency with which they believe they have been living life according to their values. This scale will be examined as a candidate outcome measure for a future efficacy trial. A possible of 10 to 100 total points for importance of values and 10 to 100 total points for consistency of action with values is demonstrated on the Valued Living Questionnaire (VLQ). Higher scores on the VLQ are indicative of greater importance of values and greater consistency in acting on values.

The Outcome Questionnaire-45 (OQ-45) is a self-report measure that assesses functioning in the psychosocial domains of symptom distress (0-100 points), social relations (0-44 points), and social role functioning (0-36 points). The OQ-45 will be examined as a candidate outcome measure for a future efficacy trial. Higher scores on the OQ-45 are indicative of more symptom distress, difficulty in social relations, and difficulty in social role functioning.

This is a self-report measure that assesses ability to perform various social activities. This measure will be examined as a candidate outcome measure for a future efficacy trial. Total scores range from 8 to 40 points on this scale with higher scores associated with greater satisfaction with social roles and activities.

This is a self-report measure that assesses experience of social isolation. This measure will be examined as a candidate outcome measure for a future efficacy trial. Total scores range from 4 to 20 points with higher scores on this scale associated with greater social isolation.

Self-report ecological momentary assessment via a smart phone application was developed to assess in the moment experiential avoidance, emotions, and engagement in valued behavior. However, because VA regulations and use of a new application, analyses will focus on feasibility of completing the EMA and will be reported as number of participants who provided EMA data. Actual EMA responses will only be analyzed if there is sufficient participation. Actual EMA responses will only be analyzed if there are 25% or more reporting participants.

Self-report measure that assesses impairment within the last 30 days across a spectrum of psychosocial domains. Will be examined as a candidate outcome measure for a future efficacy trial. Response options range from 0 = never to 6 = always. The measure yields a mean score for the total scale. Higher scores indicate less functional impairment. The total scale score is reported.