Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Psychology (PsyD)

First Advisor

Marc J. Diener

Abstract

The psychological impacts of war can be devastating for soldiers and veterans. Even for those who have not seen combat, military service can be a stressful experience. Although posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been identified as the most common form of psychopathology in this population, military personnel are susceptible to a variety of other mental illnesses, including anxiety, depression, and substance use disorders (Prigerson, Maciejewski, & Rosenheck, 2002). Meta-analytic reviews demonstrate the efficacy of exposure-based interventions for soldiers and veterans with symptoms of posttraumatic stress (PTS), but results are inconclusive regarding the efficacy of other treatments for military servicemembers (Kitchiner, Roberts, Wilcox, & Bisson, 2012). Further, there appears to be a significant portion of soldiers and veterans with PTSD that does not respond to exposure-based treatments (Sher & Yehuda, 2011). Mindfulness-based interventions have shown to be effective in treating a breadth of psychopathology in civilian populations (Khoury et al., 2013). The purpose of the proposed study was to conduct a meta-analysis analyzing the efficacy of such interventions, specifically with soldiers and veterans. Three major literature databases, PsycINFO, Medline, and Cochrane were searched for randomized controlled studies that used mindfulness-based interventions with soldiers and veterans. It was hypothesized that mindfulness-based interventions would be shown to be efficacious for soldiers and veterans. Format and dosage of treatment, study quality, and diagnosis were coded and examined as potential moderator variables. General support was found for the efficacy of mindfulness-based interventions with soldiers in terms of reduction of symptoms of PTS and depression and positive changes in various “other” outcome areas. Future meta-analyses on this topic would benefit from incorporating biological and physical health outcome data (which were excluded from the present study).

Download

Share

COinS