# An adjunctive family intervention for individual PTSD treatment

> **NIH VA IK2** · VA BOSTON HEALTH CARE SYSTEM · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a devastating illness that has substantial costs to Veterans, their
families, and society. Although effective individual treatments for PTSD exist, high rates of treatment dropout
and generally sub-optimal response rates remain common. Incorporating family members in treatment
represents one potential avenue for improving outcomes, but existing family-inclusive treatments for PTSD are
lengthy and burdensome to families and clinicians. To address this critical limitation, the applicant proposes a
pilot effectiveness trial of a brief family intervention (BFI), to be delivered as an adjunct to Veterans’ individual
PTSD treatment. The two-session BFI protocol, which has been previously tested and found to be efficacious
with family members of patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder, focuses on two primary family behaviors:
increasing active support for treatment and reducing PTSD symptom accommodation, or family members’
attempts to modify their own behavior or the environment in order to reduce Veterans’ distress. Although often
well-intentioned, accommodation directly conflicts with the goal of emotional exposure, a core target of current
gold-standard PTSD treatments; effectively reducing accommodation therefore holds the potential to increase
the “dose” of treatment.
 In the proposed study, the BFI will be modified to increase its relevance to PTSD and will then be
tested via a randomized controlled trial among family members of Veterans who are beginning a course of
either PE or CPT. We propose that the BFI will exert its effects by reducing family member accommodation
and increasing family members’ active support for treatment (e.g., assisting with transportation to appointments
or providing verbal encouragement); we further propose that these changes in family members will result in
increased treatment engagement by patients and increased levels of “exposure opportunities” (experiences of
tolerating strong emotions in daily life).
 Our primary measures of the BFI’s effectiveness will be PTSD symptoms and treatment engagement
among those Veterans whose family members receive it, compared to Veterans whose family members do not
receive the BFI. PTSD symptoms will be assessed using the Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS-5),
and treatment engagement will be assessed using an existing measure of homework completion and a report
of sessions attended, both to be completed by the treating clinician. We will use ecological momentary
assessment, an advanced assessment strategy that allows for real-time data capture via smartphones, to
explore the hypothesized mechanisms of the BFI’s effects in both family members and Veterans. We will also
collect qualitative and quantitative pre-implementation data to examine the feasibility and acceptability of the
BFI in a routine-care setting when delivered by trained usual care clinicians. These clinicians will be trained by
the PI, who is the developer of the BFI, ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10416997
- **Project number:** 5IK2CX001589-05
- **Recipient organization:** VA BOSTON HEALTH CARE SYSTEM
- **Principal Investigator:** Johanna Thompson-Hollands
- **Activity code:** IK2 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-07-01 → 2021-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10416997

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10416997, An adjunctive family intervention for individual PTSD treatment (5IK2CX001589-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10416997. Licensed CC0.

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