A Comparison of Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Pharmacotherapy, and Their Combination for PTSD: What Works Best, and for Whom

Status: Recruiting
Location: See all (7) locations...
Intervention Type: Drug, Behavioral
Study Type: Interventional
Study Phase: Phase 4
SUMMARY

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) remains a salient and debilitating problem, in the general population and for military veterans in particular. Several psychological and pharmacological treatments for PTSD have evidence to support their efficacy. However, the lack of comparative effectiveness data for PTSD treatments remains a major gap in the literature, which limits conclusions that can be drawn about which of these treatments work best. The current study will compare the effectiveness of PTSD treatments with the strongest evidentiary support - Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy and pharmacotherapy with paroxetine or venlafaxine - as well as the combination of these two treatments. A randomized trial will be conducted with a large, diverse sample of veterans with PTSD (N = 300) recruited from 6 VA Medical Centers throughout the US. Participants will complete baseline assessments, followed by an active treatment phase (involving up to 14 sessions of PE and/or medication management) with mid (7 week) and posttreatment (14 week) assessments, and follow-up assessments at 27 and 40 weeks. Study outcomes will include PTSD severity, depression, quality of life and functioning, assessed via clinical ratings and self-report measures. Further, a range of demographic and clinically relevant variables (e.g., trauma type/number, resilience) will be collected at baseline and examined as potential predictors or moderators of treatment response, addressing another gap in the PTSD treatment literature. These data will be used to develop algorithms from predicting the optimal treatment for individual patients (i.e., personalized advantage indices; PAIs). Effectiveness of the treatments will be compared using multilevel modeling. PAIs will be developed by conducting bootstrapped analyses to select variables that predict or moderate outcomes (clinician rated PTSD severity at Week 14), followed by jacknife analyses to determine the magnitude of the predicted difference (representing an individual's predicted advantage of one treatment over the others).

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 18
Maximum Age: 75
Healthy Volunteers: t
View:

• DSM-5 diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

• military veteran

• fluent in English

• willing to participate in PE, pharmacotherapy, or both

• capable of providing informed consent

Locations
United States
Alabama
Birmingham VA Healthcare System
RECRUITING
Birmingham
California
VA Palo Alto Healthcare System
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Menlo Park
VA San Diego Healthcare System
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
San Diego
Pennsylvania
Coatesville VA Medicial Center
RECRUITING
Coatesville
Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center
RECRUITING
Philadelphia
Texas
VA North Texas Healthcare System
ACTIVE_NOT_RECRUITING
Dallas
Wisconsin
Milwaukee VA Medical Center
RECRUITING
Milwaukee
Contact Information
Primary
Keith E Bredemeier, PhD
kbredem@udel.edu
215-746-3327
Backup
Michael Thase, MD
thase@pennmedicine.upenn.edu
215-746-6680
Time Frame
Start Date: 2022-05-25
Estimated Completion Date: 2026-07-15
Participants
Target number of participants: 300
Treatments
Active_comparator: Prolonged Exposure Therapy
8-14 sessions of psychotherapy, each lasting 60-90 minutes, focused on imaginal exposure to trauma memories and in vivo exposure to trauma reminders
Active_comparator: Pharmacotherapy
20-60mg of paroxetine daily, or 75-300mg of venlafaxine XR daily
Active_comparator: Combined treatment (Prolonged Exposure and Pharmacotherapy)
8-14 sessions of psychotherapy, each lasting 60-90 minutes, focused on imaginal exposure to trauma memories and in vivo exposure to trauma reminders AND 20-60mg of paroxetine daily, or 75-300mg of venlafaxine XR daily
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Collaborators: San Diego Veterans Healthcare System, Coatesville VA Medical Center, North Texas Veterans Healthcare System, Birmingham VA Health Care System, Corporal Michael J. Crescenz VA Medical Center, VA Palo Alto Health Care System, Milwaukee VA Medical Center, Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute
Leads: University of Pennsylvania

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov