Abstract
Social support is a treatment target for individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) but is not systematically assessed in clinical care. This review evaluated the quality of patient-reported social support instruments used in PTSD research to identify candidates for measurement-based care (MBC) with this population. A systematic review identified all validated measures of social support used in research with traumatized populations after 1990. Instrument development/validation studies were then evaluated using components of the updated COSMIN guidelines. Instruments were rated for clinical utility and evidence of their psychometric properties in use with traumatized individuals was synthesized. Twenty-nine instruments were identified across 231 studies. Evaluation of development articles found 14 instruments with sufficient evidence of content validity and internal consistency reliability that could be considered for clinical use. Of these, nine had comparable properties in traumatized samples and could be preliminarily included in MBC of social support in the treatment of PTSD. Additional studies on measures’ responsiveness and test–retest reliability are needed. Existing measures of social support could improve clinical care of PTSD when used routinely to provide feedback on this critical component of health. MBC of social support may also improve clinical care of other psychiatric conditions.
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We express gratitude to Lisa Batten, Suparna Rajan, and Carol Simons for initial assistance with reviewing titles and abstracts, and to Todd Edwards for consultation on the best manner in which to use COSMIN guidelines for this review.
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This work was supported by a grant from United States Department of Veterans Affairs, Health Services Research and Development (CDA 19-208) to SBC.
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Authors are responsible for correctness of the statements provided in the manuscript. SBC helped design the protocol for the systematic review, conducted the searches and extracted, quality appraised and analyzed the data, and led the writing of the manuscript. JCF and TLS helped design the protocol for the systematic review and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. NG, ERB, AD and SM helped screen articles for inclusion, quality appraised and analyzed the data and contributed to the writing of the manuscript. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the position or policy of the United States Department of Veterans Affairs or the University of Washington.
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Fortney, J.C., Garcia, N., Simpson, T.L. et al. A systematic review of social support instruments for measurement-based care in posttraumatic stress disorder. Curr Psychol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05799-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-024-05799-8