Clinical trial NCT04463225: The Network Study: Soldiers Connecting for Work and Health
Official title: Patterns of Alcohol Use and Suicide-related Thoughts Among Recently Discharged Veterans: Risk Factors Associated With the Military-to-Veteran Transition
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: UNKNOWN
Phase: NA
Conditions: Alcohol Use Disorder
Depression
Keywords: Negative Emotional States
Anxiety
Alcohol norms
Trauma
PTSD
Stress
Self-medication
Lead sponsor: Cornell University
Sponsor class: OTHER
Collaborators: name: University of Washington
name: University of South Carolina
First posted: 2020-07-09
Enrollment: 450
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Maximum age (years): 62
Standard ages: ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Allocation: RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Intervention model description: One group will receive three opportunities to engage with a personalized internet-delivered brief intervention over the course of seven months and the second group will not be granted access.
Primary purpose: PREVENTION

Brief summary: This study will examine the efficacy of an internet-based brief intervention designed to reduce risky behavior in Soldiers as they transition from Active Duty into the civilian workforce as a Veteran. Up to 700 soldiers intending to separate from the Army will be recruited, with the intention of drawing a final sample of 450 participants. Study participants will be randomly assigned to either the intervention or the control group, stratified by age and gender.

Detailed description: The combination of alcohol use and negative emotional states is a particularly toxic combination for suicide risk. The current study examines changes in alcohol/drug use/misuse and depression as soldiers undergo the transition from Active Duty to Veteran and offers a personalized internet-based brief intervention intended to prevent/reduce alcohol misuse and depression in this population.

The study's objectives are to empirically quantify the form of changes that occur with respect to alcohol use and depression over the transition; to identify stable individual risk factors (e.g., personality, military experiences) and dynamic risk factors (e.g., changes in stressors and normative contexts over time) that may be associated with differential temporal patterns of suicide-related behavior (i.e., alcohol use/misuse) and cognition (i.e., depression); and lastly, to determine whether a simple, internet-delivered brief intervention shown can reduce risky behavior in the transitioning Veteran population.

Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Is US solider intending to separate from active duty during the study enrollment period
* Intends to seek civilian employment
* Plans to live in US

Exclusion Criteria:

* Plans to retire and not seek civilian employment
* Plans to live outside of the US
* Is separating or retiring from the National Guard or Reserves

Primary outcomes:
measure: Change in Heavy Episodic Drinking
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of monthly over 15 months
measure: Change in Modal alcohol consumption
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of monthly over 15 months
measure: Change in Negative Emotional State -- Depression
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of monthly over 15 months
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Change in Alcohol-related problems
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of monthly over 15 months
measure: Change in Suicidal ideation
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of monthly over 15 months
Other outcomes:
measure: Change in Employment
timeFrame: Through study completion, an average of monthly over 15 months
Locations:
city: Tacoma
country: United States
facility: Joint Base Lewis-McChord
state: Washington
Study officials:
affiliation: Cornell University
name: Samuel Bacharach, Ph.D.
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
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