Assessing and Enhancing Social Support

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and impairing problem among Veterans, many of whom first seek treatment in primary care settings. PTSD is linked to reduced quality of life and increased rates of suicide. Additionally, social support, defined as the availability of others to provide emotional or practical support when needed, is frequently poor for Veterans with PTSD. For Veterans with PTSD, poor social support negatively impacts PTSD treatment engagement and outcomes, interfering with PTSD recovery. There is a need for additional brief, primary care-based treatments for PTSD that also work to improve social support in traumatized Veterans. The proposed research seeks to evaluate and refine such an intervention and establish a protocol for routinely measuring social support to inform treatment. This intervention and measurement protocol will likely improve Veterans' mental health and social relationships.