Study Targeting Affect Regulation (STAR)

Primary Outcome Measures:

• Traumatic stress symptom severity [ Time Frame: 3-month follow-up ]
  Our team will use the Impact of Event Scale to measure the self-reported severity of traumatic stress symptoms related to HIV/AIDS.
  
  

Secondary Outcome Measures:

• Psychological reactivity to expressive writing [ Time Frame: 1-month follow-up ]
  Participants will complete measures of subjective distress and craving of stimulants (i.e., methamphetamine, cocaine, and crack) before and after each expressive writing exercise to provide an index of habituation. Habituation is defined as a 50% reduction in the psychological reactivity to the expressive writing experience using these self-report measures.
  
  

In the multi-component intervention protocol, participants will complete expressive writing exercises where they will be asked to write about difficult life experiences. Following expressive writing, participants will receive stress management skills training to assist them with managing any acute increases in distress that arise from the writing experience. Participants in the attention-control condition will write about neutral topics and complete psychological measures. The overarching goals of this Phase Ib RCT will be to: 1) examine the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention and attention-control; and 2) determine whether intervention participants report reductions in traumatic stress symptoms over the 3 months following randomization. Findings from this Phase Ib trial will inform our efforts to implement a more definitive RCT of this intervention with HIV-positive, methamphetamine-using MSM.