Feasibility of Multimodal Group Treatment for Veterans with PTSD, Depression, and High-Risk Drinking: A Pilot Study

Abstract

United States military veterans experience a wide range of post-deployment psychological problems, including disproportionate rates of PTSD, depression, and high-risk drinking. First-line psychological treatments for these conditions (e.g., cognitive-behavioral therapy) are effective but can be lengthy and intensive, leading many veterans to drop out of treatment. A novel brief multimodal group treatment program has been developed as an alternative to these first-line treatments. It was hoped that this brief treatment would exhibit lower dropout compared to lengthier first-line treatments, while still helping veterans learn emotion-regulation and interpersonal skills to reduce symptoms of PTSD, depression, and high-risk drinking. Cohorts of up to 18 group members meet for this five-day program that integrates cognitive-behavioral instruction, mindfulness practice, and emotion-focused principles into didactic and experiential group activities. For several years pretreatment and posttreatment follow-up data have been collected from group members, including symptoms of moral injury, posttraumatic stress, depression, and high-risk drinking. We report pilot data from 50 veterans who participated in this program and completed a posttreatment follow-up survey and program evaluation. Scores on measures of posttraumatic stress, depression, and high-risk drinking were significantly reduced at posttreatment follow-up. The dropout rate for this program (2.9%) was lower than veterans’ average dropout rate across all types of PTSD treatment (36%). Veterans’ perceptions of the program are discussed. Based on these findings, we discuss implications for working with veterans in brief multimodal group treatments and conducting research on these interventions.