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Symposia

Treatment - CBT

Family Member Support for Psychotherapy for PTSD: A Promising Innovation for Treatment Engagement

3 - (SYM 91) Family-involved Interventions May Offer Unique Benefits for Veterans with PTSD Experiencing High Family Strain

Saturday, November 16, 2024
2:30 PM – 4:00 PM EST
Location: Grand Ballroom D, Level 5, Downtown Marriott
Abstract Body

Family member support for PTSD treatment is associated with positive outcomes (Meis et al., 2019; Thompson-Hollands et al., 2021). Yet, historically psychotherapy for PTSD has targeted the individual. Hesitancy to engage family members who experience high family strain could exclude individuals who would benefit from family support (Shepherd-Banigan et al., 2024). Our objective is to learn how family strain influences experiences with a brief, dyadic family-involved intervention for Veterans undergoing Prolonged Exposure or Cognitive Processing Therapy. Specifically, we examined how high/low family strain influenced intervention perceptions. We used a sequential explanatory mixed methods design to analyze qualitative exit interview data from a 3-session family-involved pilot study stratified by Veteran baseline scores of family strain (Veteran n=16; family n=12) (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2018). While nearly 50% of Veterans reported belonging to a non-White racial group, all of the Veterans were men. Themes were identified via rapid qualitative analysis (Hamilton & Finley, 2019) of interview data categorized by high/low strain. Themes reflected pre-intervention expectations, intervention experiences, and post-intervention changes. Differences in intervention experiences were observed with different family strain levels. Participants in the high strain group articulated concrete goals for the intervention and provided more details about benefits, including an enhanced understanding of PTSD, improved family communication, and increased social support. Participants in the high strain group reported more discomfort with the intervention process, especially the conjoint sessions. Family-involved interventions for Veterans with high family strain are feasible and may have even greater benefits than for Veterans reporting low family strain. These findings suggest that family-involved interventions may have more widespread benefits than previously thought and could be considered for inclusion into clinical practice. Future research is needed to empirically test this hypothesis and to understand the experiences of female Veterans.