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Objectives: This secondary analysis examined five facets of mindful awareness as potential moderators of clinical outcomes using data from a randomized controlled trial (RCT) that compared Mantram Repetition Program (MRP) with present-centered therapy (PCT) in veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Methods: Data were examined from 173 veterans with military-related PTSD randomly assigned to receive eight sessions of MRP ( n = 89) or PCT ( n = 84). Clinician-administered and self-report measures of mindfulness (Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire [FFMQ]), PTSD severity, insomnia symptoms, and depression symptoms, and were obtained pre- and post-intervention. Hierarchical regressions were used to test for FFMQ moderation on clinical outcomes within the two treatment groups. Results: For those with greater ability to "describe their internal experience" (+1 standard deviation [SD]), MRP was associated with lower PTSD hyperarousal symptoms post-intervention than PCT ( p < 0.001). For those with lower "nonreactivity to internal stimuli" (-1 SD), MRP was associated with greater reductions in PTSD avoidance and numbing symptoms and insomnia compared with PCT (all p s < 0.002). Conclusions: Pre-intervention mindfulness domains of "describe" and "nonreactivity to inner experience" differentially predicted improvements in PTSD and insomnia symptoms for MRP as compared with PCT subjects. The FFMQ may be an important tool for predicting patient preparedness for mindfulness-based interventions, such as MRP.

Racial, ethnic, and gender health care disparities in the United States are well-documented and stretch across the lifespan. Even in large integrated health care systems such as Veteran Health Administration, which are designed to provide equality in care, social and economic disparities persist, and limit patients' achievement of health goals across multiple domains. We explore Veterans' Whole Health priorities among Veteran demographic groups. Participants who were enrolling in Veteran Health Administration provided demographics and Whole Health priorities using eScreening, a web-based self-assessment tool. Veterans had similar health care goals regardless of demographic characteristics but differences were noted in current health appraisals. Non-White and women Veterans reported worse health-relevant functioning. Black Veterans were more likely to endorse a low rating for their personal development/relationships. Multiracial Veterans were more likely to endorse a low rating of their surroundings. Asian Veterans were less likely to provide a high rating of their surroundings. Women Veterans reported lower appraisals for body and personal development but higher appraisals of professional care. Results indicated that demographic factors such as race and gender, and to a lesser extent ethnicity, were associated with health disparities. The Whole Health model provides a holistic framework for addressing these disparities. These findings may inform more culturally sensitive care and enhance Veteran Health Administration equal access initiatives. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Background: Military sexual trauma (MST) is associated with negative mental health outcomes. Mental health beliefs, such as stigma or secondary victimization, have been identified as possible barriers to care; however, it is unclear whether such beliefs impact receiving care., Objective: To assess if mental health beliefs impact MST-related mental health care access and engagement., Design: Veterans completed a survey following detection of MST. Survey data were linked to Veteran's Health Administration administrative data in order to examine associations with outpatient MST-related care in the year following MST detection., Participants: A national sample of women and men Veterans (N = 1,185) with newly detected MST who reported a perceived need for MST-related mental health treatment., Main Measures: Building on prior work that identified four latent classes of mental health beliefs (Hahn et al., J Trauma Stress 34:394-404, 2020; low barrier, stigma-related beliefs, negative perceptions of care, high barrier), we examined associations with outpatient mental health care indicated by a provider as related to MST. Care was examined in total, as well as the specific categories of medication management, individual psychotherapy, and group psychotherapy., Key Results: Access to care following MST detection was high: most (71.6%) Veterans had an MST-related mental health visit within 30 days, and nearly all (83.6%) within 180 days, with the median number of days to receiving care being 2. Negative perceptions of care predicted a lower likelihood of treatment engagement (3+ encounters) with MST-related individual psychotherapy (OR = 0.65, 95% CI (0.43-0.96)), whereas the stigma-related beliefs and high barrier classes did not., Conclusions: There appears to be excellent access to mental health care among Veterans with a perceived need for MST-related mental health treatment. However, treatment beliefs that represented negative perceptions of care may serve as barriers to engagement. Interventions targeting negative perceptions of care during early encounters could help promote subsequent engagement., (© 2022. The Author(s).)

Background: There is increasing support for the use of meditation-based treatments for US military Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The Mantram Repetition Program (MRP), which is a portable meditative practice that features mindful repetition of a sacred phrase, is associated with significant reductions in PTSD symptom severity. Although regular practice is emphasized in meditation-based interventions, associations between frequency of practice and clinical outcomes are often not reported., Objectives: This study will examine whether the frequency of mantram repetition is associated with greater improvements in clinical outcomes., Methods: Veterans with PTSD participating in MRP ( N  = 160; combined experimental groups from two randomized controlled trials). Participants completed pre- and post-treatment self-report measures of anger and well-being and a clinician-administered interview of PTSD severity (CAPS-IV-TR). Veterans also reported average daily mantram repetition practice at post-treatment. We conducted a series of hierarchal multiple regression analyses., Results: When controlling for race/ethnicity and pre-treatment severity, higher frequency of mantram repetition practice was associated with significantly greater improvements (small effect sizes) in PTSD symptom severity ( F (3,128) = 6.60, p  < .001, β = .21, p  = .007), trait anger ( F (3,128) = 31.23, p  <   .001, β = .25, p  < .001), state anger ( F (3,110)  = 17.62, p  < .001, β = .16, p  = .04), mental health well-being ( F (3,128) = 28.38, p  < .001, β = .14, p  = .04), and spiritual well-being ( F (3,127) = 13.15, p  < .001, β = .23, p  = .003), but not physical health well-being., Conclusions: Higher frequency of mantram repetition practice appears to have beneficial effects on clinical outcomes for Veterans with PTSD. Strategies that promote skills practice may be an important target for improving clinical outcomes for meditation-based interventions., Highlights: Higher frequency of meditation practice during Mantram Repetition Program was associated with greater reductions in PTSD symptoms and anger as well as improvements in well-being.Strategies to promote at-home meditation practice may optimize the benefits of MRP., Competing Interests: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s)., (© 2022 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.)

Introduction: Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with poor psychosocial and health outcomes in adulthood. Veterans and females experience ACEs disproportionately. A greater understanding of this disparity may be achieved by examining the relationship between distinct ACE patterns and these demographic characteristics. Therefore, this study examined distinct ACE patterns and their association with Veteran status, sex, and other demographics in a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults to inform interventions tailored to ACE patterns experienced by specific groups., Materials and Methods: Latent class analysis (LCA) was conducted with data from the National Epidemiologic Survey of Alcohol and Related Conditions-III, a nationally representative structured diagnostic interview conducted from 2012-2013. The target population was the noninstitutionalized adult population living in the USA. The analytic sample was 36,190 (mean age 46.5 years; 48.1% male). Of these participants, 3,111 were Veterans. Data were analyzed between September 2020 and January 2021., Results: Latent class analysis revealed a four-class solution: (1) "Low adversity" (75.3%); (2) "Primarily household dysfunction" (9.0%); (3) "Primarily maltreatment" (10.7%); and (4) "Multiple adversity types" (5.1%). Compared to "Low adversity," members in the other classes were more likely to be Veterans (odds ratio (OR)C2vC1 = 1.33, ORC3vC1 = 1.55, ORC4vC1 = 1.98) and female (ORC2vC1 = 1.58, ORC3vC1 = 1.22, ORC4vC1 = 1.65). While lower education and income were also related to higher adversity class membership, Veteran status and sex were the strongest predictors, even when controlling for education and income., Conclusions: Distinct and meaningful patterns of ACEs identified in this study highlight the need for routine ACE screenings in Veterans and females. As in the current study, operationalizing and clustering ACEs can inform screening measures and trauma-informed interventions in line with personalized medicine. Future work can test if classes are differentially associated with health outcomes., (Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States 2021. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.)

This observational study aims to determine the characteristics of peer support that change attitudes toward recovery and PTSD symptom severity. The study respondents were a sample of 55 VA patients who were residents at a residential rehabilitation program for PTSD where they were the recipients of peer support. Veterans perceived greater support from other veterans (mean = 4.04 on 1-5 scale, SD = 0.78) than from any other source. Greater perceived support from the peer support provider, other veterans and mental health staff was associated with improvements from intake to discharge in recovery attitudes. Greater perceived support from other veterans and mental health staff was associated with an improvement in PTSD symptoms. Results from this study suggest that positive perceptions of peer support favorably influences attitudes toward recovery, from PTSD, in veterans who are the recipients of such support.

Background: The Veterans Health Administration (VA) Women's Health Practice-Based Research Network (WH-PBRN) was created to foster innovations for the health care of women veterans. The inaugural study by the WH-PBRN was designed to identify women veterans' own priorities and preferences for mental health services and to inform refinements to WH-PBRN operational procedures. Addressing the latter, this article reports lessons learned from the inaugural study., Methods: WH-PBRN site coordinators at the 4 participating sites convened weekly with the study coordinator and the WH-PBRN program manager to address logistical issues and identify lessons learned. Findings were categorized into a matrix of challenges and facilitators related to key study elements., Results: Challenges to the conduct of PBRN-based research included tracking of regulatory documents; cross-site variability in some regulatory processes; and troubleshooting logistics of clinic-based recruitment. Facilitators included a central institutional review board, strong relationships between WH-PBRN research teams and women's health clinic teams, and the perception that women want to help other women veterans., Conclusion: Our experience with the inaugural WH-PBRN study demonstrated the feasibility of establishing productive relationships between local clinicians and researchers, and of recruiting a special population (women veterans) in diverse sites within an integrated health care system. This identified strengths of a PBRN approach., (© Copyright 2015 by the American Board of Family Medicine.)

Research suggests that there may be unique barriers to accessing care among men who have experienced sexual trauma. The primary goal of the current research was to elucidate potential barriers to accessing military sexual trauma (MST)-related care for male veterans. A secondary goal was to explore whether veterans have preferences regarding the gender of clinicians providing MST-related care. Qualitative analyses were used to examine data collected from semistructured interviews conducted with 20 male veterans enrolled in Veterans Health Administration care who reported MST but who had not received any MST-related mental health care. Veterans identified a number of potential barriers, with the majority of reported barriers relating to issues of stigma and gender. Regarding provider gender preferences, veterans were mixed, with 50% preferring a female provider, 25% a male provider, and 25% reporting no gender preference. These preliminary data suggest that stigma, gender, and knowledge-related barriers may exist for men regarding seeking MST-related care. Interventions to address potential barriers, such as outreach interventions and providing gender-specific psychoeducation, may increase access to care for male veterans who report MST., (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved.)

Objective: To examine the effectiveness of group cognitive processing therapy (CPT) relative to trauma-focused group treatment as usual (TAU) in the context of a Veterans Health Administration (VHA) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) residential rehabilitation program., Method: Participants were 2 cohorts of male patients in the same program treated with either CPT (n = 104) or TAU (n = 93; prior to the implementation of CPT). Cohorts were compared on changes from pre- to posttreatment using the PTSD Checklist (PCL; Weathers, Litz, Herman, Huska, & Keane, 1993) and other measures of symptoms and functioning. Minorities represented 41% of the sample, and the mean age was 52 years (SD = 9.22). The CPT group was significantly younger and less likely to receive disability benefits for PTSD; however, these variables were not related to outcome., Results: Analyses of covariance controlling for intake symptom levels and cohort differences revealed that CPT participants evidenced more symptom improvement at discharge than TAU participants on the PCL, F(3, 193) = 15.32, p < .001, b = 6.25, 95% CI [3.06, 9.44], and other measures. In addition, significantly more patients treated with CPT were classified as "recovered" or "improved" at discharge, χ2(1, N = 197) = 4.93, p = .032., Conclusions: There is still room for improvement, as substantial numbers of veterans continue to experience significant symptoms even after treatment with CPT in a residential program. However, CPT appears to produce significantly more symptom improvement than treatment conducted before the implementation of CPT. The implementation of this empirically supported treatment in VHA settings is both feasible and sustainable and is likely to improve care for male veterans with military-related PTSD.

BACKGROUND: Disparities in physical and mental health among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are well-documented and mirrored in the Veteran population. Chronic stress due to racism and discrimination is one possible mechanism driving these negative health outcomes. The Race-Based Stress and Trauma Empowerment (RBSTE) group is a novel, manualized, health promotion intervention designed to address the direct and indirect impacts of racism among Veterans of Color. This paper describes the protocol of the first pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of RBSTE. This study will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of RBSTE compared to an active control (an adaptation of Present-Centered Therapy; PCT) in a Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare setting. A secondary aim is to identify and optimize strategies for holistic evaluation. METHODS: Veterans of Color (N = 48) endorsing perceived discrimination and stress will be randomized to RBSTE or PCT; both groups will be delivered in 8 weekly, 90-min virtual group sessions. Outcomes will include measures of psychological distress, discrimination and ethnoracial identity, holistic wellness, and allostatic load. Measures will be administered at baseline and post-intervention. CONCLUSION: This study will inform future interventions targeting identity-based stressors and represents an important step in advancing equity for BIPOC in medicine and research. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: NCT05422638.

This cross-sectional study examined the odds of being diagnosed with a sexually transmitted infection (STI) or a sexual dysfunction disorder (SDD) among Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) American veterans receiving care in the Veterans’ Health Administration (VHA) in relation to whether or not they have experienced military sexual trauma (MST). Among those veterans who experienced MST, the influence of a diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder, a depressive disorder, or a substance use disorder on the odds of being diagnosed with an STI or SDD was also examined. The study utilized nationwide VHA records of 420,725 OEF/OIF male and female veterans who used VHA services in fiscal years 2002 to 2010. Veterans who reported a history of MST were more likely to have a number of STIs and SDDs compared with veterans without a history of MST. Among veterans with MST, the risk for having an STI or SDD increased with the presence of certain mental health diagnoses. Implications for clinical practice and assessment with veterans are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Disparities in physical and mental health among Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) are well-documented and mirrored in the Veteran population. Chronic stress due to racism and discrimination is one possible mechanism driving these negative health outcomes. The Race-Based Stress and Trauma Empowerment (RBSTE) group is a novel, manualized, health promotion intervention designed to address the direct and indirect impacts of racism among Veterans of Color. This paper describes the protocol of the first pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) of RBSTE. This study will examine the feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of RBSTE compared to an active control (an adaptation of Present-Centered Therapy; PCT) in a Veterans Affairs (VA) healthcare setting. A secondary aim is to identify and optimize strategies for holistic evaluation. Veterans of Color (N = 48) endorsing perceived discrimination and stress will be randomized to RBSTE or PCT; both groups will be delivered in 8 weekly, 90-min virtual group sessions. Outcomes will include measures of psychological distress, discrimination and ethnoracial identity, holistic wellness, and allostatic load. Measures will be administered at baseline and post-intervention. This study will inform future interventions targeting identity-based stressors and represents an important step in advancing equity for BIPOC in medicine and research. Clinical trial registration number: NCT05422638 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]