Effect of Text Messaging-based Psychiatric Nursing Program on Quality of Life in Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Randomized Controlled Trial.
Asieh Darvish, Naema Khodadadi-Hassankiadeh, Sirous Abdoosti and 1 others
PMID 30643833WHAT IT FOUND
Veterans with PTSD who received daily text-message psychiatric nursing alongside usual medications, psychological consultations and clinic care reported lower PTSD symptoms and better quality of life after six months.
The text messages alone cannot be separated from routine care.
Key findings
01Veterans in the text-message group had lower PTSD symptom scores after the intervention than veterans in routine care (26.32 versus 30.48, P=0.001).
02In the text-message group, all eight quality-of-life domains improved significantly after the intervention (P=0.015, P=0.001, P=0.001, P=0.001, P=0.009, P=0.001, P=0.001, P=0.001).
03The text-message group received the SMS programme while all participants also received multiple drugs and psychological consultations, so the effect of text messaging alone cannot be separated.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The sample was small: 57 participants were analysed after 9 of 66 recruited became unreachable. The analysis did not correct for other factors that might explain the difference. The intervention was not isolated: all participants received multiple drugs and psychological consultations, and the control group received routine psychiatric care. The study was done in one hospital with Iranian war veterans, so it may not apply to other people with PTSD. The control group also showed significant improvement in some quality-of-life domains, so routine care itself had effects. The reported PTSD recurrence result is hard to interpret because the text says the intervention group had lower mean frequency but lists 2.40 versus 1.20. The paper does not explicitly label a primary outcome among PTSD symptoms, recurrence and quality of life. Participants could have dual diagnoses such as depression or substance dependence, so results are not limited to PTSD alone.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that text messages alone improved PTSD symptoms or quality of life. All participants received multiple drugs and psychological consultations, and the control group received routine psychiatric care, so the contribution of any single component cannot be separated.