Preliminary findings for a brief posttraumatic stress intervention in primary mental health care

A team of clinicians at a small rural Veterans' Health Administration (VHA) medical center piloted a brief psychological intervention for posttraumatic stress in a primary mental health care setting. Symptom measures were completed by veterans before and after receiving the brief trauma treatment (BTT), and were then analyzed using paired t tests. In our uncontrolled study, we found a statistically insignificant improvement in symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, though there were statistically significant, but not clinically significant, improvements in depression and general anxiety. The intervention may enhance subsequent specialty mental health engagement. Fifty-one veterans (62.20%) went on to receive psychotherapy in a specialty mental health setting, which represents a substantial increase in specialty psychotherapy engagement compared to reports elsewhere in the literature. Lack of controlled comparison precludes definitive conclusions, but the current preliminary results support future studies of brief psychological interventions in primary care settings, including randomized controlled comparisons.