The Impact of a Healthy Intervention and Psychotherapy on Cardiovascular Disease in PTSD Individuals

The Impact of a Healthy Intervention and Psychotherapy on Cardiovascular Disease in PTSD Individuals

Alvin Sherman Library

Significant research indicates a relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk. Those affected with PTSD have been found to show higher patterns of CVD risk earlier in life compared to the general population. Interventions need to be developed to reduce the risk of CVD in PTSD individuals. Although there has been research regarding the elevated CVD risk in PTSD, little research has been done addressing CVD risk reduction in the same population. To tackle this issue, adjunctive treatments, such as health behavior interventions, may be required in addition to traditional psychotherapy for PTSD to reduce overall CVD risks. This proposed project aims to assess the effectiveness of a healthy lifestyle intervention coupled with traditional psychotherapy, addressing multiple CVD-related health behaviors among civilian adults across genders (ages 18+), who provide evidence of PTSD and CVD risk at baseline. During this study, we will assess the intervention’s impact on an individual’s health behaviors subjectively and objectively, cardiovascular risks, and markers for CVD over a one-year timeframe. The healthy lifestyle intervention tackles aspects of PTSD symptoms that may prevent individuals from practicing healthy behaviors. Some examples include sleep disruption, avoiding physiological arousal, and cognitive responses to stress. Participants with PTSD will be randomly assigned to one of two groups. One group will undergo usual care psychotherapy-only control condition and the other will undergo a usual care psychotherapy plus healthy lifestyle intervention condition. We will assess the results at post-intervention (12 weeks), 6-month, and 12- month time points for follow-up evaluation.