USU Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress, DARPA collaborate to ‘STRENGTHEN’ mental health

Newswise — Bethesda, Md. – Since 9/11, more than 30,000 service members and veterans have taken their own lives – a devastating toll that represents four times the number of those killed in post-911 military operations. To help reduce and eliminate suicide, the Uniformed Services University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) has partnered with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) on a muti-study program designed to target and optimize brain circuits associated with suicide. 

CSTS, part of USU’s Department of Psychiatry, will provide consultation and support to DARPA and study teams for the new program – Strengthening Resilient Emotions and Nimble Cognitions through Engineering Neuroplasticity, or STRENGTHEN.  STRENGTHEN will involve a multitude of studies led by Columbia and Harvard universities, McLean Hospital, and the University of Wisconsin, Madison.  Ultimately, this research aims to develop treatments that will enhance cognitive flexibility – the skill of adapting one’s thinking to new situations and challenges. In doing so, service members and veterans should be able to switch more easily between suicidal thoughts and thinking about reasons to live. Additionally, STRENGTHEN will simultaneously aim to improve emotional regulation, allowing them to feel emotions like grief and loss, without being constantly consumed by these emotions.  

By building on recent advances in neuroscience, biomedical engineering, and clinical practice, STRENGTHEN will develop new ways to optimize brain circuits associated with cognitive flexibility and emotional regulation – skills known to act as protective buffers against traumatic stress – while enhancing overall wellbeing and preventing or mitigating the effects of traumatic stress, including diverse behavioral health disorders and suicidality.

In the first phase of the program, each team will develop a hybrid approach using techniques like transcranial magnetic stimulation therapy along with behavioral therapies (e.g. cognitive behavioral therapy) to optimize brain circuits associated with mental health. The focus will be on one of three cohorts of suicidality: low risk, at risk, or high risk individuals. If successful in the initial phase, the teams will then work to increase the effectiveness of the hybrid interventions and apply them to additional cohorts of suicidality. 

“In a world where the battlefield includes not just physical, but also mental challenges, STRENGTHEN represents a landmark effort in safeguarding the wellbeing of our military servicemembers and veterans,” said Army Col. (Dr.) Vincent Capaldi, professor and chair of Psychiatry at USU. “By focusing on cognitive flexibility and emotion regulation, we are not just treating symptoms but targeting root mechanisms that can amplify resilience against traumatic stress. Our aim is to work closely with DARPA and the world-renowned STRENGTHEN research teams to ensure feasibility of potential interventions in military and veteran populations and to identify opportunities for rapidly fielding successful innovations in our military and veteran health care centers.”

The CSTS will support the program by providing expertise and consultation to DARPA, ensuring that program results and discoveries are quickly translated into further research, policies, and initiative targeted at supporting service members and veterans communities. Additionally, the CSTS will serve as the Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) partner, which involves verifying the study is accurate, valid, and viable. They will also lend extensive expertise in various areas of the STRENGTHEN program, including military medicine, psychiatry and psychology, trauma disorders, and cognitive neuroscience.  The IV&V team will be led by Capaldi, along with USU’s Drs. Robert Ursano, David Benedek, Frances Gabbay and Erin Maresh. 

With Dr. Maresh overseeing daily operations, the IV&V team will also help foster collaboration among the research teams, and facilitate and evaluate efforts to achieve program milestones. Critically, the IV&V team will work closely with the research teams throughout the program to ensure the development of interventions that can be transitioned and scaled to military and veteran populations and to identify opportunities for innovation within military and veteran care centers.

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About the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences: The Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, founded by an act of Congress in 1972, is the nation’s federal health sciences university and the academic heart of the Military Health System. USU students are primarily active-duty uniformed officers in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Public Health Service who receive specialized education in tropical and infectious diseases, TBI and PTSD, disaster response and humanitarian assistance, global health, and acute trauma care. USU also has graduate programs in oral biology, biomedical sciences and public health committed to excellence in research. The University’s research program covers a wide range of areas important to both the military and public health. For more information about USU and its programs, visit www.usuhs.edu.