Objectives:

Primary care (PC) patients typically do not receive adequate posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment. This study tested if a brief mindfulness training (BMT) offered in PC can decrease PTSD severity.

Method:

VA PC patients with PTSD (N = 62) were recruited for a randomized clinical trial comparing PCBMT with PC treatment as usual. PCBMT is a 4-session program adapted from mindfulness-based stress reduction.

Results:

PTSD severity decreased in both conditions, although PCBMT completers reported significantly larger decreases in PTSD and depression from pre- to posttreatment and maintained gains at the 8-week follow-up compared with the control group. Exploratory analyses revealed that the describing, nonjudging, and acting with awareness facets of mindfulness may account for decreases in PTSD.

Conclusion:

Our data support preliminary efficacy of BMT for Veterans with PTSD. Whether PCBMT facilitates engagement into, or improves outcomes of, full-length empirically supported treatment for PTSD remains to be evaluated.