At a glance
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Developing a Computer-Based Intervention to Enhance Behavioral Treatments for PTSD and Addiction
In Brief
A clinical study evaluating Prolonged Exposure Therapy and Prolonged Exposure therapy + VR/ER for Substance Use Disorders and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Completed, enrolled 38 participants across 1 site.
Detailed Summary
Eligible veterans, National Guardsmen \& Reservists with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and problems with addiction will be randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions. All participants will undergo exposure therapy, a gold standard behavioral treatment for PTSD for 10 weeks. In addition to exposure therapy, some participants will be randomly assigned to receive (1) virtual reality (VR)-based exposure to cues for marijuana, cocaine, heroin, cigarette, and/or alcohol use, and (2) cellular phone-based reminders of learning (extinction reminders, or, ERs) to VR exposure (available 24 hours per day/7 days per week) to high-risk contexts for drug use. The main hypothesis is that those participants who receive exposure therapy + VR/ERs will demonstrate less substance use and lower PTSD symptoms during treatment, at post-treatment, and at follow-up than those participants who only receive exposure therapy. At study completion, a total of 123 subjects signed consent.
Study Details
Timeline
Interventions
These treatments include repeated exposure to intrusive trauma-related memories in a safe and structured manner designed to reduce emotional arousal and facilitate processing of trauma-related memories.
The therapy includes repeated exposure to intrusive trauma-related memories in a safe and structured manner designed to reduce emotional arousal and facilitate processing of trauma-related memories and adding in virtual reality (VR)-based exposure to cues for marijuana, cocaine, heroin, cigarette, and/or alcohol use \& CER used outside treatment sessions in response to VR exposure (available 24 hours per day/7 days per week) to high-risk contexts for drug use