Deployment Psychology Blog

Staff Perspective: Sleep Can Put up a Good Fight and Not Improve Following a Trauma-Focused Treatment

By Paula Domenici  on 10.03.2021 9:42 am

After 14 sessions of an evidence-based psychotherapy (EBP) for PTSD, my patient’s improvement was undeniable. His score on the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5) had decreased from 62 at baseline to 18 at our final session. He described that his trauma memories no longer had a hold over him, they were fading away in a healthy way. When I looked at his final PCL-5, I was pleased to see he had rated all of the items 0 or 1, except for item #20 (trouble falling or staying asleep), which he rated 4. I had hoped this symptom would have improved as treatment progressed, yet no matter how well our work was going, it hardly budged.

Research Update: 4 March 2021

By Shirl Kennedy  on 04.03.2021 12:01 pm
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The weekly Research Update contains the latest news, journal articles, useful links from around the web. Some of this week's topics include: 
● Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in a Cohort of Pregnant Active Duty U.S. Military Servicewomen.
● Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Treatment Dropout Among Military and Veteran Populations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.
● The impact of COVID-19 social isolation on aspects of emotional and social cognition.

Staff Perspective: Engaging Military-Connected Couples in Treatment

By Christy Collette  on 03.03.2021 8:59 am

During my 20+ years working in the mental health field, I have worked with multiple military-connected couples. Often, the entry point for couples’ work was a spouse who had been given an ultimatum about working on resolving marital conflict or face separation/divorce. In one study by Pflieger et al. (2018), researchers found that while military couples face additional stressors, the majority of marital dissatisfaction can be explained by stressors not unique to the military service. In my work with couples, I found this to be true. While many of the stressors may have surfaced during their military service (i.e., conflict regarding parental responsibilities during the deployment cycle), the stressors themselves are also found in civilian couples

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