Impact of the revised VA/DoD Clinical Practice Guideline for Management of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder for couples and families: Commentary on Lang et al. (2024)

As a multinational group of clinicians and researchers focused on including family in veterans’ and military members’ care for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), we wrote this commentary to raise specific considerations related to the revised Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)/Department of Defense (DoD) Clinical Practice Guideline (CPG) for PTSD and Acute Stress Disorder (VA/DoD, 2023) regarding couple- and family-based treatment. We discuss concerns regarding: (a) insufficient guidance about the role of intimate partners and families, (b) issues with using and defining specific treatments in the CPG evidence rubric, and (c) algorithm and recommendations for guiding patient preference toward individual interventions.

Candice M. Monson and Steffany J. Fredman receive royalties from Guilford Press for their published treatment manual on cognitive behavioral conjoint therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and payment for providing psychotherapy workshops on PTSD and/or conjoint interventions for psychopathology. Candice M. Monson also receives royalties from Guilford Press and the American Psychological Association Press for books related to the treatment of PTSD (i.e., cognitive processing therapy, cognitive-behavioral therapy for PTSD) and couples/families and trauma, and she owns equity in Nellie Health, a digital mental health intervention company. Skye Fitzpatrick receives payment for providing psychotherapy workshops, including conjoint interventions for psychopathology, and owns equity in Nellie Health. No other authors have conflicts of interest to declare.