Improving Behavioral Health Care for U.S. Army Personnel: Identifying Predictors of Treatment Outcomes

The U.S. Army has made a significant effort to improve the quality of behavioral health (BH) care and outcomes for soldiers over the past decade (Hoge et al., 2015).To support these initiatives, the Office of the Surgeon General, U.S. Army, asked RAND Arroyo Center to identify factors that predict changes in outcomes for soldiers who receive Army BH specialty care and to develop recommendations to improve BH care and soldier outcomes. We identified active-duty soldiers diagnosed with a new episode of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, or anxiety who received BH specialty care between January and September 2016 and whose outcomesPTSD, depression, or anxiety symptomswere assessed during their subsequent care.