Abstract

Military personnel and first responders are distinct populations that share similarities on work, cultural, and peritraumatic factors that may impact evidence-based PTSD treatment (EBT) outcomes. Little research to date has compared their response to EBTs or identified predictors of EBT outcomes for both populations. The present study examined whether first responders' treatment outcomes were non-inferior to those of military personnel in a three-week Trauma Management Therapy (TMT)-based intensive outpatient program (IOP) and whether baseline hyperarousal symptoms were predictive of outcomes. Data were analyzed from 111 military personnel and first responders (85.6% male, mean age=43.0 years) who completed the IOP. Changes in PTSD (CAPS-5, PCL-5), depression (PHQ-8), and suicide-related (PHQ item 9) symptom severity from pre- to post-treatment were examined. Military personnel and first responders reported large reductions in CAPS-5 (d=1.96), PCL-5 (d=1.84), and PHQ-8 (d=1.46) scores and medium reductions in PHQ item 9 (d=0.5) scores. First responders' treatment outcomes were non-inferior to those of military personnel (ps>.013). Baseline hyperarousal symptom severity on the CAPS-5 was predictive of CAPS-5 outcomes (p=.011) but not of other treatment outcomes after controlling for baseline symptom severity on the other three CAPS-5 clusters (ps > .013). Findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the IOP for military personnel and first responders and suggest the potential applicability of existing EBT approaches used with military personnel for first responders. Future research should seek to facilitate the development and dissemination of EBT approaches for first responders and to identify predictors of outcomes for military personnel and different first responder types (e.g., firefighter, law enforcement, etc.).

Notes

If this is your thesis or dissertation, and want to learn how to access it or for more information about readership statistics, contact us at STARS@ucf.edu

Graduation Date

2022

Semester

Fall

Advisor

Rozek, David

Degree

Master of Science (M.S.)

College

College of Sciences

Department

Psychology

Degree Program

Psychology Clinical

Format

application/pdf

Identifier

CFE0009413; DP0027136

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027136

Language

English

Release Date

December 2023

Length of Campus-only Access

1 year

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

Download

Share

COinS