Adjustment Disorders in the US Military: Disease Trajectories and ADNM-20-Mil Validation

Adjustment disorders (AjDs) - a group of mental health diagnosis given following exposure to a stressor that results in preoccupation, failure to adapt, and/or functional impairments - have consistently remained the most common mental health diagnoses in the US military across branches for more than a decade. AjDs can be dangerous and negatively affect military readiness by reducing availability of members and through use of resources to allow evacuations from combat. Diagnosing AjDs can be challenging as it is closely related to other well-defined mental health disorders and assessment and research on AjDs have historically been difficult due to the lack of clarity in the disorder's diagnostic criteria. However, the Adjustment Disorder New Module (ADNM-20) is a recently developed instrument that has shown promise.

In previous work, our team adapted the ADNM-20 to the US military population after finding that there was a need for an AjD-specific diagnostic instrument in this population; this instrument is referred to as the ADNM-20-Mil. The principal focus of this study is the longitudinal psychometric validation of the ADNM-20-mil. However, another goal of the proposed study is to pilot test the audio-visual stimulation device SANA for AjD as pilot testing such a device for AjD is a needed next step. Furthermore, the proposed, longitudinal study provides an ideal platform to test the ADNM-20-Mil's sensitivity to change in the context of this pilot trial to address this critical area of need.