Understanding and testing recovery processes for PTSD and alcohol use following sexual assault

PROJECT SUMMARY
Following sexual assault, many individuals will develop chronic problems including posttraumatic stress
disorder (PTSD) and alcohol use disorders (AUD). Intervention provided soon after assault can decrease the
risk of developing chronic psychopathology and associated negative consequences. Interventions that address
common underlying mechanisms of PTSD and alcohol use, such as fear and reward systems, have strong
potential utility as efficacious and accessible interventions for clinicians treating patients recently exposed to
sexual assault. This proposal is designed to test fear and reward as crucial processes underlying recovery
following sexual assault and elucidate the most efficacious treatment targets. Employing experimental tasks
(safety-signal learning paradigm and probabilistic reward task) to capture baseline underlying vulnerabilities in
fear and reward systems respectively will allow for exploration of how these processes impact recovery. A
randomized clinical trial (N = 180) will be conducted to test efficacy of intervention approaches that target
PTSD or alcohol use compared to supportive telehealth. In addition, a phased study design will allow for
exploration of efficacy of primary and secondary intervention approaches to test the questions of 1) whether it
is more efficacious to target PTSD or alcohol use first; and 2) whether it is necessary to target both PTSD and
alcohol use to facilitate recovery or if one is sufficient. This proposal is significant in exploring transdiagnostic
mechanisms implicated in recovery following sexual assault, fear and reward, and using a novel design to
compare efficacy, ordering, and necessity of two distinct intervention approaches.

Grant Number: 5R01AA027499-05
NIH Institute/Center: NIH
Principal Investigator: MICHELE BEDARD-Gilligan