A clinician's guide to the 2023 VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder

Ariel J Lang; Jessica L Hamblen; Paul Holtzheimer; Ursula Kelly; Sonya B Norman; David Riggs; Paula P Schnurr; Ilse Wiechers

doi:10.1002/jts.23013

A clinician's guide to the 2023 VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder

J Trauma Stress. 2024 Feb;37(1):19-34. doi: 10.1002/jts.23013. Epub 2024 Jan 7.

Authors

Ariel J Lang^{1

2

3}, Jessica L Hamblen^{4

5}, Paul Holtzheimer^{4

5}, Ursula Kelly^{6

7}, Sonya B Norman^{1

2

4}, David Riggs⁸, Paula P Schnurr^{4

5}, Ilse Wiechers^{9

10

11}

Affiliations

¹ VA San Diego Center of Excellence for Stress and Mental Health (CESAMH), San Diego, California, USA.
² Department of Psychiatry, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
³ Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, California, USA.
⁴ National Center for PTSD, White River Junction, Vermont, USA.
⁵ Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth, Hanover, New Hampshire, USA.
⁶ VA Atlanta Healthcare System, Decatur, Georgia, USA.
⁷ Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing, Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia, USA.
⁸ Department of Medical and Clinical Psychology, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland, USA.
⁹ Veterans Health Administration Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention, Washington, DC, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, University of California San Francisco, San Francisco, California, USA.
¹¹ Department of Psychiatry, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

PMID: 38184799
DOI: 10.1002/jts.23013

Abstract

A clinical practice guideline (CPG) is a rigorously established set of recommendations based on currently available evidence about the efficacy, safety, acceptability, and feasibility of interventions to assist with clinical decision-making. The 2023 Department of Veterans Affairs /Department of Defense Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder is described herein. The CPG recommendations are accompanied by a clinical algorithm, which incorporates principles of evidence-based practice, shared decision-making, and functional and contextual assessments of goals and outcomes. An overview of the CPG recommendations is combined with a discussion of questions that clinicians and patients may face in implementing the CPG and suggestions for how to effectively work with the CPG.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Humans
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* / diagnosis
Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic* / therapy
Stress Disorders, Traumatic, Acute*
United States
United States Department of Veterans Affairs
Veterans*