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An Examination of Hope, Symptom Severity, and Functioning Among Combat Veterans After Participation in an Intensive Outpatient Program for PTSD

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Abstract

Impairment in psychosocial functioning complicates readjustment to civilian life for many combat veterans with PTSD and is related to poorer quality of life. Hope theory posits that both a sense of agency and the ability to identify pathways toward achieving a goal underlie the process of behavior change. We developed an intensive outpatient program (the HOME program) in order to help combat veterans move toward values-driven activities and improve psychosocial functioning. We hypothesized that increased hope regarding veterans’ ability to manage and recover from PTSD symptoms may facilitate improvements in functioning apart from symptom reduction. The present study examines changes in hope, psychosocial functioning, and PTSD symptoms in a sample of HOME participants (N = 33). Consistent with our hypothesis, results indicated that greater levels of hope were associated with improvements in adaptive behaviors (related to functioning) above and beyond symptom change. These preliminary findings suggest that therapeutic interventions that increase veterans’ perceptions of hope regarding recovery from PTSD may enhance psychosocial functioning. Additional research with larger samples is needed to further examine these relationships.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all of the veterans who have participated in the HOME program. We would also like to acknowledge the tireless efforts of the co-developers and therapists involved in the program, Elise McDonald, LICSW and Nancy Brand, Ph.D.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Veterans Affairs VA Medical Center, Providence, RI, USA

    Christy Capone & Amy Y. Cameron

  2. Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Warren Alpert Medical School, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA

    Christy Capone & Amy Y. Cameron

Authors
  1. Christy Capone
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  2. Amy Y. Cameron
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Correspondence to Christy Capone.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Ethical Approval

While this manuscript is based on retrospective data that did not require informed consent (see below), all procedures performed involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the Internal Review Board (IRB) of the VA Medical Center at which the procedures took place.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was not obtained from participants as the program was developed as part of standard clinical care for veterans at the VA site. The Institutional Review Board (IRB) at the VA site was consulted prior to development of this manuscript and deemed IRB approval was not necessary for publication as the data were collected with the intent of program development and quality improvement for the clinical care of veterans at the study site.

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Capone, C., Cameron, A.Y. An Examination of Hope, Symptom Severity, and Functioning Among Combat Veterans After Participation in an Intensive Outpatient Program for PTSD. J Contemp Psychother 50, 143–150 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10879-019-09440-9

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