Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a prevalent disorder in military samples associated with adverse emotional and health impacts and enormous health care costs, and it is often resistant to treatment. Identification of PTSD-related factors that contribute to poor clinical and health outcomes is imperative to refine treatment strategies. Post deployment -related sleep disturbances constitute one of the factors that contribute to poor clinical and health outcomes. PTSD symptoms persist during sleep, but little clinical attention is typically devoted to nighttime symptoms. Other deployment related stress reactions are associated with sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances are resistant to traditional PTSD treatments. There is emerging evidence that adjunct sleep-focused interventions (pharmacological or behavioral) are associated with improvements in sleep, daytime symptomatology, general emotional well being, and functioning. Therefore, sleep focused interventions may enhance treatment response and clinical outcomes in individuals exposed to trauma with consequent sleep disturbances. However, the efficacy and durability of adjunct sleep interventions have not been formally evaluated and compared. In this study, we aim at comparing the efficacy and durability of interventions targeting sleep disturbances that occurred in relation to military service and or military deployment.
The overarching objective of this study is to investigate and compare the efficacy and durability of adjunct sleep-focused interventions on sleep, daytime PTSD symptomatology, and mood in a sample of 90 male and female veterans who experience nightmares and insomnia. The specific aims and hypotheses are: 1. To investigate the efficacy of prazosin, integrated behavioral sleep intervention (IBSI), and placebo (PLA) on post deployment-related sleep disturbances; 2. To compare the efficacy of pharmacological and behavioral interventions adjunct sleep focused interventions; 3. To evaluate and compare the durability of active sleep-focused interventions on sleep, daytime PTSD symptoms, mood, and anxiety by conducting a naturalistic follow-up assessment 4 months after the end-of-treatment assessment. A secondary aim is to identify demographic, psychosocial, and clinical predictors of sleep treatment response in military veterans.
Participants will be recruited from the Pittsburgh VA Health Care System clinics and services. Treatments will be administered over an eight-week period for all conditions. Primary outcome measures include (1) Sleep Quality as determined by polysomnographic (sleep) recordings, and global scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and PSQI Addendum for PTSD (PSQI-A). Sleep response will be defined as a sleep latency \< 30 minutes, and wake time after sleep onset \< 30 minutes, and a sleep efficiency \> 85% as determined by sleep diaries and in-home sleep studies, or a decrease in \> 5 points on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index. Secondary outcome measures include PTSD symptom severity as determined by the Clinician-Administered PTSD scale, Part 2, and the self-report PTSD Symptom Checklist-Military version; depression severity (as determined by the Beck Depression Inventory) anxiety (Beck Anxiety Inventory), (4) health-related quality of life (SF-36). A naturalistic follow-up assessment will be conducted four months post-treatment.
The proposed study will contribute to the development of effective therapeutic strategies for PTSD. This study will provide novel information regarding predictors of sleep treatment response in PTSD, which will contribute to facilitating care management in PTSD.
