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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Social Support for Veterans With PTSD

NCT04567680 · Status: COMPLETED · Phase: NA · Type: INTERVENTIONAL · Enrollment: 107

Last updated 2026-02-13

Study results available
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Summary

Veterans with PTSD often have impaired social relationships and poor social support. The negative outcomes associated with poor social support are of particular concern for Veterans with PTSD, who often perceive the world to be dangerous, view their social support network as a threat to their safety, and avoid members of their support network in order to increase their perceived safety. The goal of this project is to evaluate the efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Social Support for Veterans with PTSD (ACT-SS), a treatment focused on helping Veterans with PTSD to increase social support with family relationships, partners, and peers by targeting maladaptive patterns of interpersonal difficulties, feelings of detachment from others, irritability, and avoidance of social situations. The primary aim of this study is to conduct a two-site randomized controlled trial of ACT-SS (n=75) vs. PCT (n=75), a common treatment for social support difficulties. If positive, this study will provide a critically-needed treatment for Veterans with PTSD to improve their social functioning and social reintegration in the community.

Conditions

  • Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to Improve Social Support for Veterans with PTSD

This treatment is designed to help Veterans with PTSD increase social support in family, partner, and peer relationships by reducing experiential avoidance. ACT-SS is specifically designed to address deficits in the entire social support network for Veterans with PTSD.

BEHAVIORAL

Present-Centered Therapy

PCT is designed to provide the emotional support for individuals with PTSD that will assist with recovery. The focus of PCT is on the "here and now," including current life difficulties that are directly or indirectly related to the experience of trauma. PCT aims to help the patient consider ways to react to these difficulties.

Sponsors & Collaborators

  • VA Office of Research and Development

    lead FED

Principal Investigators

  • Megan Marie Kelly, PhD MS · VA Bedford HealthCare System, Bedford, MA

Study Design

Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
SINGLE
Model
PARALLEL

Eligibility

Sex
ALL
Healthy Volunteers
No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start
2021-03-01
Primary Completion
2025-02-11
Completion
2025-02-11

Countries

  • United States

Study Locations

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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 NCT04567680 on ClinicalTrials.gov