Posttraumatic stress disorder is common among military Veterans. While effective treatments exist, many Veterans either do not engage in treatment or fail to achieve full remission. Thus, there is a need to develop adjunctive complementary interventions to enhance treatment engagement and/or response. Equine-assisted activities and therapies (EAAT) are one category of animal assisted interventions that might serve this function. The aim of this article is to review the current state and challenges regarding the use of EAAT for Veterans with PTSD and provide a roadmap to move the field forward. EAAT hold promise as adjunctive complementary interventions for symptom reduction among Veterans with PTSD. Additionally, there is evidence that these approaches may enhance wellbeing in this population. At this time, many gaps in the literature exist and rigorous randomized controlled trials are needed before definitive conclusions can be drawn. The authors of this work provide recommendations as a roadmap to move the field forward. These include standardizing the EAAT nomenclature, focusing mechanism of action studies on the human-horse bond using biological metrics and using a standardized intervention model across studies.

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2470547021991556

Equine-Assisted Activities and Therapies for Veterans With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Current State, Challenges and Future Directions.

Mindfulness-based interventions for military veterans: A systematic review and analysis of the literature.

There is a need to develop novel complementary interventions aimed at enhancing treatment engagement and/or response for veterans with psychiatric and substance use disorders. There is evidence that both mindfulness training and nature exposure (MT/NE) may be beneficial for this population and that combining the two approaches into one intervention might result in synergistic benefit. However, to date, the MT/NE concept has not been tested. This article reports a pilot feasibility and acceptability study of MT/NE which was, in this case, provided via recreational sailing. The primary aim of this project was to develop a model intervention and evaluation process that could be used for future studies of MT/NE interventions using a variety of methods of nature exposure (e.g., hiking, skiing, mountain biking). Results indicate preliminary evidence that it is feasible to utilize MT/NE interventions for the population studied and that the MT/NE model described can serve as a template for future investigations. Further, there were significant pre- to post-intervention decreases in state anxiety, as well as increases in trait mindfulness. Three psychological instruments were identified that might be used in future studies to evaluate MT/NE outcomes. Results from this project provide a model MT/NE intervention template along with evaluation metrics for use in future studies.

/pdf/mindfulness-training-plus-nature-exposure-for-veterans-with-4kv36xz9vi.pdf

Mindfulness Training plus Nature Exposure for Veterans with Psychiatric and Substance Use Disorders: A Model Intervention.

Evaluation of a mindfulness and self-compassion-based psychotherapy incorporating horses for Veterans who have experienced trauma.

Abstract Background Women veterans experience higher levels of stress-related symptoms than their civilian counterparts. Psychological stress is associated with greater inflammation and may increase risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). Mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) has been found to improve psychological well-being in other populations but no randomized controlled trials (RCT) have been conducted examining the impact of MBSR on well-being and inflammation in women veterans at risk for CVD. Objective Determine the effectiveness of MBSR in improving psychological well-being, cortisol, and inflammation associated with CVD in women veterans. Design The design is a RCT comparing MBSR to an active control condition (ACC) consisting of a health education program. Participants Women veterans ( N =164) with risk factors for CVD from the Chicagoland area participated in the study. Intervention An 8-week MBSR program with weekly 2.5-h classes was compared to an ACC consisting of an 8-week health promotion education program with weekly 2.5-h classes. Main Measures The outcomes were psychological well-being [perceived stress, depressive symptoms, loneliness, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)] symptoms and stress-related markers, including diurnal salivary cortisol and cytokines interleukin-6 (IL-6) and interferon gamma (IFN-γ). Data were collected at baseline, 4 weeks (mid-point of intervention), 8 weeks (completion of intervention), and 6 months after completion of MBSR or ACC. Key Results Compared to the ACC, women who participated in MBSR reported less perceived stress, loneliness, and symptoms of PTSD. Although there were no significant differences between groups or changes over time in IL-6 or IFN-γ, participants in the MBSR program demonstrated a more rapid decline in diurnal salivary cortisol as compared to those in the ACC. Conclusions MBSR was found to improve psychological well-being and decrease diurnal salivary cortisol in women veterans at risk for CVD. Health care providers may consider MBSR for women veterans as a means by which to improve their psychological well-being. 

/pdf/impact-of-a-mindfulness-based-stress-reduction-program-on-2qsomciw.pdf

Impact of a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction Program on Psychological Well-Being, Cortisol, and Inflammation in Women Veterans

Objective:Mindfulness-based interventions are an evidence-based approach utilized in health care. There is developing evidence for effective use with military Veterans. However, little is known abo...

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/2050312120938226

Veterans’ interests, perceptions, and use of mindfulness:

Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate utilization and outcomes of mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) provided to veterans with psychiatric disorders. Design: Retrospect...

/pdf/treatment-engagement-and-outcomes-of-mindfulness-based-317o90rn0g.pdf

Treatment Engagement and Outcomes of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Veterans with Psychiatric Disorders

Handle everyday research tasks with reliable, citation-backed results

Your personal Research Agent to handle research tasks with citation-backed results

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Meet SciSpace

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

Ryan Lackner

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Mindfulness-based interventions for military veterans: A systematic review and analysis of the literature.

Veterans’ interests, perceptions, and use of mindfulness:

Treatment Engagement and Outcomes of Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy for Veterans with Psychiatric Disorders