A Trauma Informed Adaptation of Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention for Women in Substance Use Treatment

Approximately 4.7 million women in the US experience sexual and/or physical interpersonal violence (IPV) each year, and 46% experience IPV in their lifetime. More than 50% of interpersonal related violence occurs before age 25. In addition to acute, chronic and fatal injuries caused by IPV, women survivors of trauma (WST) are also at greater risk for organ and immune system diseases due to chronic stress, reproductive dysfunctions and complications during pregnancy, psychological disorders, and the inability to access health care services and social support. Estimated medical and mental health care costs for WST are $8.3 billion dollars per year, as well as $8 million dollars lost in paid workdays. Additionally, annual health care cost of survivors can persist up to 15 years after the cessation of abuse.

More than 90% of women admitted into substance use treatment settings have experienced IPV, and 30-60% meet criteria for comorbid SUD and PTSD. IPV typically precedes the onset of substance abuse as a means to cope with intense physiological, psychological, and emotional symptoms attributed to the event. Research has demonstrated that for women, PTSD symptoms may mediate the relationship between IPV and problematic SU. Women with PTSD symptoms and SUD also experience greater severity of addiction symptoms compared to men, and often readmit into treatment more frequently than men or women without traumatic histories. Evidence also suggests that PTSD symptoms and SU yields poorer treatment outcomes than any other comorbid disorder, or than SUD or PTSD alone. Due to these high rates of comorbidity and interrelationship of symptoms, particularly in women, integrated treatments targeting both substance use and trauma recovery are needed. However, few such evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are available for WST in substance use treatment settings. The few EBIs addressing SUD and trauma that are available have been mostly validated on males or specifically adapted for veteran populations. Mindfulness-Based Relapse Prevention (MBRP) is one evidence-based intervention that has demonstrated efficacy in reducing substance craving, relapse, and negative affect in a variety of SUD populations. It has also shown efficacy in incarcerated populations, ethnic minority women, and women offenders, all of which have higher levels of trauma exposure compared to normative samples. Research on Mindfulness-Based Interventions (MBIs) with trauma populations suggest that mindfulness skills can help decrease PTSD symptoms associated with avoidance and trauma-based cognitions, and that MBIs are not iatrogenic for trauma populations. A trauma informed adaptation of MBRP may thus offer an integrated intervention targeting both PTSD and SUD symptoms, and addressing the etiologies and maintaining factors underlying the comorbidity.

Given the particular needs and unique presentation of WST in substance use treatment settings, effective evidence-based interventions must be developed to improve treatment outcomes. The long-term goal of this line of research is to develop, examine and disseminate an adapted evidence-based treatment for comorbid SUD and PTSD for women survivors of trauma (WST). The primary objective of this study is to develop and evaluate an intervention that integrates trauma education and treatment approaches used in Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), an evidence-based intervention for PTSD, into the standard MBRP protocol to provide a trauma-informed approach to treating women in community-based substance use treatment settings. The development phase of the study will use focus groups with staff and clients from a women's residential treatment center who have completed the MBRP course to inform the integration of trauma education using the CPT manual into the MBRP protocol. Using a mixed-methods, pre-post, randomized-control design, WST (N=100) enrolled in a residential treatment program will be randomized by cluster into an experimental (TI-MBRP) or control (TAU) group to determine feasibility, acceptability, preliminary efficacy, and candidate mechanisms of TI-MBRP. To accomplish the primary objective, the following three aims are proposed:

Aim 1: Development and refinement of a Trauma Informed-Mindfulness Based Relapse Prevention (TI-MBRP) protocol. Informed by focus groups with staff and resident clients, a protocol integrating evidence-based practices for SUDs and PTSD will be developed for women in substance use treatment endorsing PTSD symptoms.

Aim 2: Determine feasibility and acceptability of TI-MBRP. Based on prior studies of MBRP in similar populations, we hypothesize TI-MBRP will be feasible and acceptable, as measured by recruitment and retention rates, weekly homework compliance, client participation in groups, and post-intervention client feedback.

Aim 3: Determine meaningful changes at pre-, post-, 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-month follow-up assessment time points in SUD and trauma-related outcomes, and identify candidate mechanisms. We hypothesize that, as compared to TAU, participation in TI-MBRP will result in:

1. Significantly reduced trauma-related symptomology, craving, substance use, reactivity to negative affect, and experiential avoidance at post-intervention, and maintenance of treatment outcomes at 12-month follow-up.
2. Significant improvements in self-efficacy, coping skills, and mindfulness at post-intervention, and maintenance of treatment outcomes at 12-month follow-up.

Interested residents will be screened for eligibility based on the Inclusion/Exclusion Screening Tool, Breslau's Short Screening Scale, and Suicidal Behaviors Questionnaire. Eligible participants will be provided with a written informed consent. The PI will review the informed consent with participants and answer any questions or concerns that participants may have about study procedures, confidentiality, data analysis, and dissemination of results. Once written informed consent is obtained, participants will be notified of the group start date within one week of signing the consent form. Participants will be asked to complete a battery of paper-and-pencil assessments within one week prior to the start of the first session. Paper-and-pencil assessments will take no more than 60 minutes to complete.

Experimental and Treatment-As-Usual (TAU) groups will be implemented simultaneously for maximization of participants within the given time frame, totaling 10 groups over a 10-month period. Participants will complete a battery of self-report assessments at baseline. Then, using computer randomizing software, participants will be randomized by cluster into either an experimental or TAU group before the start of the first session. After the first session, all participants will be given an iPod touch with audio-recordings of guided meditation practices used in the intervention (i.e., body scan, breath awareness) to use as a part of their daily homework requirements. All iPod touch devices will include iMINDr, a software application developed to track frequency and duration of home meditation practice. Participants will then complete a post-course assessment battery within one week of the completion of the 4-week course. If participants are unable to be physically present to complete the post-course assessment, they will be offered a phone interview during which they will be administered self-report assessment measures orally.

One week after post-course assessment, participants will be invited to participate in an hour long, audio-recorded focus group to discuss helpful aspects of the intervention as well as what could be changed. Focus group audio recordings will be transcribed verbatim and analyzed in NVivo 11 by independent coders using a Constant Comparative Analysis.

Participants will be asked to complete additional paper-and-pencil assessments at 1-, 3-, 6-, 9-, and 12-months following post course. If participants are unable to physically attend follow-up assessment, they will be offered a phone interview with self-report assessments administered orally.