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A NEWSLETTER FOR PROVIDERS WHO TREAT VETERANS
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Addressing PTSD and Moral Injury through PE and CPT
Sonya Norman, PhD and Jennifer Wachen, PhD
Wednesday, May 15 at 2:00pm ET
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 Photo by Chinmay Singh
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About the Presenters
SONYA NORMAN, PhD Director of the PTSD Consultation Program and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, is a clinical psychologist and a researcher in moral injury, the treatment of PTSD and addictions, applications of Prolonged Exposure therapy, implementation of evidence based treatments for PTSD, novel treatments to address the kinds of problems recently deployed Veterans report, and mental health effects of trauma-related guilt and shame. She is based at the VA San Diego Healthcare System where she previously directed the PTSD treatment program for Veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and served as a consultant for the VA Prolonged Exposure therapy rollout. She served as a member of the VA/DoD PTSD Clinical Practice Guideline workgroup in 2017 and 2023. Dr. Norman has over 200 publications related to PTSD and associated problems. She received her PhD from Stanford University.
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JENNIFER WACHEN, PhD is a Clinical Research Psychologist in the Women's Health Sciences Division of the National Center for PTSD at VA Boston and an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine. She is a trainer and consultant in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) and serves as a clinician and supervisor within the Women's Trauma Recovery Team at VA Boston. Her research interests include moral injury, the evaluation of treatment interventions for PTSD and comorbid conditions, factors contributing to treatment engagement and retention, and the relationship between trauma and physical health and psychosocial functioning outcomes. She is particularly interested in improving treatment outcomes for active-duty military and Veterans. Dr. Wachen's Department of Defense-funded research focuses on optimizing CPT in military populations. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Connecticut and completed a postdoctoral fellowship at VA Boston.
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About the Topic
Moral injury can occur when someone engages in, fails to prevent, or witnesses acts that conflict with their deeply held values or beliefs. Moral injury is when such experiences lead to lasting psychological, spiritual, behavioral or social changes together with lasting distress and often functional impairment. It is common for moral injury to co-occur with PTSD. Questions remain about how to best address PTSD and moral injury in treatment when they co-occur. In this webinar, we will discuss research on co-occurring moral injury and PTSD and will share clinical strategies for assessing and addressing moral injury in two PTSD treatments that are recommended in the VA/DoD PTSD Clinical Practice Guideline, Prolonged Exposure and Cognitive Processing Therapy.
June 19: No lecture, Juneteenth holiday
July 17: PTSD Assessment: Frequently Asked Questions (Abigail Angkaw, PhD)
August 21: Tobacco, Nicotine and PTSD (Mark Myers, PhD)
September 18: Cognitive Behavioral Nightmare Therapies and PTSD (Kristi Ensor Pruiksma, PhD, DBSM)
October 16: Treating PTSD in Primary Care (Kyle Possemato, PhD)
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Moral Injury
Moral injury can occur in reaction to a traumatic event in which deeply held morals or values are violated. The resulting distress may lead to PTSD, depression, and other disorders in which feelings such as guilt, shame, betrayal and anger are predominant, although these feelings may occur in the absence of a formal disorder. Although most research that has been conducted has focused on military Veterans, moral injury can occur outside of the military context.
Read our full summary for providers
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More on Moral Injury
In addition to the article above, we have these resources available for researchers and providers:
Moral Injury and Distress Scale (MIDS)
Moral Injury in Health Care Workers
Moral Injury (PDF issue from PTSD Research Quarterly)
PTSD Repository Updated
The PTSD Trials Standardized Data Repository (PTSD Repository) is a large online database that contains information extracted from almost 500 published randomized controlled clinical trials (RCTs) for PTSD treatment. We recently redesigned the platform to customize the experience for three different audience groups. Researchers have access to resources tailored to accessing and using the data for meta-analyses and systematic reviews. Providers can search for RCTs included in the PTSD Repository by treatment type, and we have in-depth data stories to compliment clinical work. The section "For Everyone" includes snippets of data with explanations in brief stories as well as resources to support learning more about PTSD treatments.
Explore the PTSD Repository
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Our team of expert clinicians is available to consult with any healthcare provider treating U.S. veterans in any setting.
We can discuss assessment, diagnosis, psychotherapy, medications, collaborating with VA care, patient and family education, continuing education, and just about anything else related to veterans and PTSD.
No question is too big or too small.
Contact us at PTSDconsult@va.gov or 866-948-7880.
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www.ptsd.va.gov/consult |
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