Trial reportJournal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine2020
A pilot randomized controlled trial of cognitive behavioral treatment for trauma-related nightmares in active duty military personnel.
Trial report in Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 3 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 10 papers, 4 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Treatment for Trauma-Related Nightmares Compared to Waitlist Control in Active Duty Military Personnel
Piloting an Adaption of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia for Shift Workers (CBTI-Shift)
Developing a Sleep Health Intervention for Shift Workers
Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 4 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 27 citations in OpenAlex.
- Psychotherapeutic, pharmacological and other active interventions from the NICE guideline for post-traumatic stress disorder with sleep disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2025Pooled it
- Psychotherapeutic and pharmacological agents for post-traumatic stress disorder with sleep disorder: network meta-analysis.Annals of medicine · 2024Pooled it
- Psychosocial treatments for nightmares in adults and children: a systematic review.BMC psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Nightmares and psychiatric symptoms: A systematic review of longitudinal, experimental, and clinical trial studies.Clinical psychology review · 2023Pooled it
- Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy-Based Treatment for Insomnia, Nightmares, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms in Survivors of Wildfires: Pilot Randomized Feasibility Trial.JMIR human factors · 2025Trial
- Treatment of comorbid sleep disorders and posttraumatic stress disorder in U.S. active duty military personnel: A pilot randomized clinical trial.Journal of traumatic stress · 2023Trial
- The effect and safety of sleep interventions on suicidal thoughts and behavior - A systematic review and meta-analyses.Sleep medicine: X · 2025Review
- Fear of sleep in first responders: associations with trauma types, psychopathology, and sleep disturbances.Sleep advances : a journal of the Sleep Research Society · 2023Article
- Exposure, relaxation, and rescripting therapy could treat residual nightmares following PTSD treatment.Psychiatry research · 2021Article
- Treatment of Sleep Comorbidities in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.Current treatment options in psychiatry · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
15 authors at 5 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
STUDY
objectivesThe aim of this study was to obtain preliminary data on the efficacy, credibility, and acceptability of Exposure, relaxation, and rescripting therapy for military service members and veterans (ERRT-M) in active duty military personnel with trauma-related nightmares.
methodsForty participants were randomized to either 5 sessions of ERRT-M or 5 weeks of minimal contact control (MCC) followed by ERRT-M. Assessments were completed at baseline, posttreatment/postcontrol, and 1-month follow-up.
resultsDifferences between ERRT-M and control were generally medium in size for nightmare frequency (Cohen d = -0.53), nights with nightmares (d = -0.38), nightmare severity (d = -0.60), fear of sleep (d = -0.44), and symptoms of insomnia (d = -0.52), and depression (d = -0.51). In the 38 participants who received ERRT-M, there were statistically significant, medium-sized decreases in nightmare frequency (d = -0.52), nights with nightmares (d = -0.50), nightmare severity (d = -0.55), fear of sleep (d = -0.48), and symptoms of insomnia (d = -0.59), posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (d = -0.58) and depression (d = -0.59) from baseline to 1-month follow-up. Participants generally endorsed medium to high ratings of treatment credibility and expectancy. The treatment dropout rate (17.5%) was comparable to rates observed for similar treatments in civilians.
conclusionsERRT-M produced medium effect-size reductions in nightmares and several secondary outcomes including PTSD, depression, and insomnia. Participants considered ERRT-M to be credible. An adequately powered randomized clinical trial is needed to confirm findings and to compare ERRT-M to an active treatment control. CLINICAL
trial registrationRegistry: ClinicalTrials.gov; Title: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial of Treatment for Trauma-Related Nightmares In Active Duty Military Personnel; Identifier: NCT02506595; URL: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02506595.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.