Combined Treatment for Alcohol-Dependent Individuals With PTSD

Exclusion Criteria

• •1. Individuals who are at significant risk for suicide based on their current mental state or history.
• •2. Participants with other current Axis I psychiatric disorders that, in the investigators' judgment, are unstable and would be disrupted by study medications. Current diagnosis of Bipolar I and psychotic disorders are exclusionary.
• •3. Participants who are currently severely depressed.
• •4. Participants with a history of psychosis or mania.
• •5. Participants with organic mental syndrome.
• •6. Participants physiologically dependent on any substance other than alcohol (excluding nicotine or caffeine or medically stable and managed methadone).
• •7. Participants with comorbid substance abuse disorder who require detoxification treatment.
• •8. Participants with unstable or significant physical disorders (e.g., uncontrolled hypertension, poorly-controlled diabetes, alanine aminotransferase/aspartate aminotransaminase (AST/ALT) three times the upper limit of normal) that would increase the risk of study participation.
• •9. Participants with a known history of seizures (not related to alcohol withdrawal).
• •10. Participants with moderate to severe alcohol withdrawal that would require pharmacological intervention.
• •11. Participants currently taking prescribed psychotropic medication that is contraindicated for use with sertraline (e.g. antidepressant medications except for mirtazapine or trazodone when used for the treatment of insomnia ) and/or psychotropic medications where the participant has not achieved a stabilized regimen. Participants that are stable on medications that are not contraindicated with the use of sertraline (e.g., Methadone or Adderall) will not be excluded.
• •12. A history of an allergic reaction to sertraline.
• •13. Women who are currently pregnant or are trying to get pregnant or are nursing or are pre-menopausal and sexually active but not using effective birth control.
• •14. Participants refusing to be audio or videotaped.