Clinical trial NCT01247025: Prolonged Grief and Suicide Among Veterans
Official title: Examining Prolonged Grief Disorder and Its Relationship to Self-Directed Violence Among Veterans
Study type: OBSERVATIONAL
Overall status: WITHDRAWN
Conditions: Prolonged Grief Disorder
Suicidality
Lead sponsor: VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System
Sponsor class: FED
Collaborators: name: University of Colorado, Denver
First posted: 2010-11-24
Enrollment: 0
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 18
Standard ages: ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: yes
Observational model: COHORT
Time perspective: CROSS_SECTIONAL
Sampling method: NON_PROBABILITY_SAMPLE
Study population: The participants in this observational study will be all individuals willing and eligible among those seeking outpatient mental health services at the Eastern Colorado Healthcare System (ECHCS)/Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). It is expected that 180 participants will be enrolled in an effort to obtain up to 150 completed protocols. Women and minorities will be recruited as a routine part of the study. However, given the participant population within the Eastern Colorado Healthcare System (ECHCS)/Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), it is expected the majority of participants will be Caucasian men.

Brief summary: The primary research question in this study will ask, among those receiving outpatient mental health services (MHS) at the Eastern Colorado Healthcare System (ECHCS)/Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), how many suffer from Prolonged Grief Disorder (PGD)? Here, it is hypothesized that PGD will occur within the sample. A secondary aim of this study will be to investigate how often PGD co-occurs with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and/or depression. Also, while PGD has been shown to have an effect on self-directed violence (SDV) among civilians (Prigerson, Bridge et al., 1999), no studies yet have examined the relationship between PGD and SDV among Veterans. Therefore, it also is hypothesized that as PGD severity increases among the Veteran sample, risk for SDV will increase as well. Additional research aims also will be addressed in this study. For one, it will be assessed which grief symptoms are most often reported among the Veteran sample. Also, no study has yet to examine if there are neuropsychological differences between PGD and PTSD. Therefore, another research question here is whether PGD indeed is neuropsychologically different from PTSD. Here, the exploratory hypothesis is that PGD sufferers will respond to a measure of multiple components of cognition (e.g., planning, sequencing, concentration, multitasking, and memory efficiency) in a manner that is significantly different from PTSD sufferers.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Age 18 and above
* Not currently active duty in any branch of the military
* English-speaking
* Ability to adequately respond to specific questions regarding the informed consent procedure.
* Active case in Mental Health Services (MHS) at the Eastern Colorado Healthcare System (ECHCS)/Denver Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC)

Exclusion Criteria:

* Currently active duty in any branch of the military
* Non-English-speaking
* Inability to adequately respond to questions regarding the informed consent procedure.

Primary outcomes:
measure: Prolonged Grief Disorder- 13
timeFrame: At least six months post-bereavement
Secondary outcomes:
measure: Adult Suicidal Ideation Questionnaire
timeFrame: Within past month
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Denver
country: United States
facility: Eastern Colorado Health Care System (ECHCS) / Denver VA Medical Center
state: Colorado
city: Denver
country: United States
facility: VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System
state: Colorado
Study officials:
affiliation: VA Eastern Colorado Health Care System
name: Peter M Gutierrez, PhD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References: