Telemedicine and coping skills groups for Pacific Island veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder: a pilot study

Patients with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were randomly assigned to either an eight-week videoconferencing PTSD coping skills group or a traditional face-to-face PTSD coping skills group. Levels of attrition and compliance, patient satisfaction, clinician satisfaction and patients' retention of information were compared between the two conditions. Of the 41 referred veterans, 20 were eligible and agreed to participate in the study. Three of these participants withdrew from the study before randomization. By the end of the study, 89% of the patients remained in the videoconferencing group, whereas only 50% remained in the face-to-face group. Patients in the face-to-face group attended an average of 4.9 sessions and patients in the videoconferencing group attended 6.3 sessions (this difference was not significant). There was no difference between levels of patient satisfaction or clinician satisfaction at weeks 4 or 8. Patients' retention of information was similar in the two groups. The results show that videoconferencing can be used to provide coping skills groups for veteran patients with PTSD who reside in remote rural locations.