Physical health perceptions of women with comorbid PTSD and SUD.

Individuals with comorbid post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUD) are at greater risks for chronic health problems and report worse physical function than individuals with SUD alone. It is unknown if treatment that addresses PTSD and/or SUD can impact these health concerns. This poster reports on a secondary analysis of data from the National Drug Abuse Treatment Clinical Trials Network (CTN) study CTN-0015, exploring the impact of two treatments for women with trauma and SUD on health status perception.

Women meeting criteria for PTSD and alcohol and/or SUD (N=353) were randomized to either 12 biweekly group sessions of Seeking Safety, a trauma focused integrated SUD/PTSD treatment, or 12 biweekly group sessions of Women’s Health Education, an intervention focusing on gender-specific health issues. Women were assessed at baseline, 1, 12, 24, and 52 weeks post-intervention on questions from the medical subscale of the Addiction Severity Index and five questions inquiring about health status perception. Analysis found that 46% of women reported a chronic medical problem at baseline and 39% reported taking a prescribed medication for a medical problem. There were no main effects of time, group, or time-by-group interaction on measures of perceived health or number of days experiencing medical problems. Across the follow-up visits, women who experienced re-victimization (25%) reported having significantly more days of medical problems and worse perceived health than those women who did not report trauma during the follow-up.

Conclusions: Women with PTSD and SUD have physical health concerns that were not differentially affected by study treatments. Treatment for SUD and PTSD may be improved by addressing health concerns, particularly in women who experience re-victimization post-treatment.

Related protocols: CTN-0015