Pragmatic trial of brief warrior renew group therapy for military sexual trauma in VA primary care.

This is a pragmatic trial of a brief version of Warrior Renew, an emerging evidence-based treatment for military sexual trauma (MST) delivered in a Department of Veterans Affairs women's health clinic primary care setting. The full protocol meets twice a week for 12 weeks (24 sessions); however, Brief Warrior Renew meets for 8 sessions. Brief Warrior Renew is a manualized protocol addressing coping skills for affect management (e.g., triggers and anxiety) and unique aspects of MST including anger-resentments due to injustice-betrayal, and self-blame. It also addresses interpersonal factors such as relationship patterns. In this evaluation, 39 female veterans enrolled, 38 started, and 30 completed Brief Warrior Renew treatment (21% attrition). Participant scores reflected significant decreases of anxiety, depression, posttraumatic stress disorder, and negative thinking with large to very large effect sizes. Of the sample, 73.3% had reliable clinical change in their reports of negative thinking. This brief treatment appears to be feasible and well tolerated by veterans in a primary care setting. Results suggest formal investigation of this brief protocol is warranted. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).