This project is focused on improving mental health care for older adults with trauma.
Grant
Grant: Grand Challenges Mental Health and Wellbeing Network Building
Year awarded: 2023-24
Amount awarded: £2,471.13
Academics
Dr Vasiliki Orgeta, Brain Sciences
Dr Jean Stafford, MRC Unit for Lifelong Health & Ageing, Population Science & Experimental Medicine, Population Health Sciences
Older adult trauma survivors face significant health challenges, including higher rates of PTSD, cardiovascular disease, and cognitive decline, yet they often receive misdiagnoses and inadequate treatment. Our systematic review highlights a lack of large-scale clinical trials focused on this population, particularly outside veteran groups, with women and low- to middle-income countries notably underrepresented. This project aims to unite global experts to develop effective, evidence-based interventions and create a community dedicated to improving care for older adults exposed to trauma.
Outputs and Impact
Progress to date and milestones:
1. Research assistant for the project has been employed International collaborations.
2. We have had an introductory Symposium meeting with international experts on psychological trauma in late life (via the Global Collaboration on trauma and ageing workgroup https://www.global-psychotrauma.net/ageing ) and introduced the network; all experts expressed interest in being part of PROMOTE and contributing their expertise - In this meeting major future important research projects were discussed, and particularly emerging evidence of how psychological trauma could contribute to metabolic disease in late life and the importance of identifying key pathophysiological mechanisms that could influence physical health for this group - Our second International Symposium will take place in July 2024 and will primarily be aimed at identifying interventions ready to be evaluated/urgently needed (pharmacological and psychological treatments).
3. We have reviewed evidence of both pharmacological and psychological interventions to inform our Symposium of the State-of-the-Art evidence; overall we find under-representation of the general population of older people; with most trials of treatments to date focusing on war veterans, and male populations. We have identified no evidence-base for pharmacological therapies for treating PTSD symptoms for people 65+.
4. Our first symposium of international experts addressing clinical guidelines for treating traumarelated symptoms identified a major gap; there are currently no clinical guidelines specifically for this group. A major finding of this early symposium was that first choice of treatments varies by country; for example, some European countries use Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) Therapy, whereas other countries use anti-depressants as a first line of treatment; we have now identified no evidence-base to support clinical effectiveness of neither of these interventions.
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