An interventional study of Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression (MERA) and Self-Monitoring in Aggression, Anger and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), sponsored by James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital. Not yet recruiting. Open to participants aged 18 Years and older. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2026-11-12.
Sponsored by James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital · Not applicable, Interventional, and Treatment
We propose to study if Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression (MERA) is helpful in reducing anger and aggression in active duty service members by comparing it to self monitoring of one's anger and aggression. The proposed study has two treatment groups. The first group will receive MERA and then monitor their anger and aggression for 3 more weeks. The second group will be asked to monitor their anger and aggression for 3 weeks prior to receiving MERA. All service members will receive MERA and will be asked to self-monitor, but the order in which they are asked to complete these tasks will be randomized.
249 studies on the registry are indexed under Aggression; 42 are open to participants now.
This study's planned enrollment of 106 is above the median of 80 across 222 interventional studies indexed under Aggression.
Browse Aggression studies →James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital is the lead sponsor of 8 studies on the registry; 1 is open to participants now.
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Go through the criteria one by one — yes, no or not sure — and take the list to your doctor or the study team. Kept in this browser only.
Exclusion Criteria:
Had a psychotropic medication change within 4 weeks prior to the baseline assessment. Service members receiving general mental health services or engaging in usual care will be allowed to participate.
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Underlined terms in the criteria open these too. Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
The American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental health diagnoses. DSM-5 (2013, revised as DSM-5-TR in 2022) replaced DSM-IV, and some studies still name the older edition. “Meets DSM criteria for …” means diagnosed by that edition’s diagnostic criteria, usually by a clinician in an interview.
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
DSM diagnostic criteria
The American Psychiatric Association’s manual of mental health diagnoses. DSM-5 (2013, revised as DSM-5-TR in 2022) replaced DSM-IV, and some studies still name the older edition. “Meets DSM criteria for …” means diagnosed by that edition’s diagnostic criteria, usually by a clinician in an interview.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
Clinically significant
Judged by the study doctor to matter for your health or for the study. It is a doctor’s decision, so ask the study team if you are unsure whether something counts.
Explained by clinicaltrials.gg, not part of the registry record. The study team decides who can take part.
MERA followed by Self-Monitoring.
Behavioral: Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression (MERA) · Behavioral: Self-Monitoring
Self-monitoring followed by MERA.
Behavioral: Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression (MERA) · Behavioral: Self-Monitoring
Three session treatment that teaches the adaptive value of emotions and emotion regulation skills.
Three weeks of tracking anger and aggression and weekly check-ins with study team to assess for risk level.
Overt Aggression Scale - Modified (OAS-M)
Overt Aggression Scale (OAS; Yudofsky et al., 1986) is a 16-item self-report measure that assesses frequency of verbal and physical aggression against self, other, and objects. Investigators added 3 items to assess aggression while driving and in virtual communication (e.g. aggression while texting or emailing) and gave a blank for other aggressive behavior. Investigators adapted the instructions to rate aggression over the past week. There are 20 items on the OAS-M. Pilot data demonstrated that this adapted measure is sensitive to detect changes in aggression frequency during the 3 weeks of MERA (Miles, Kent, et al., 2020). Self-reported aggressive acts will be summed to create an OAS total frequency count of aggressive acts at each assessment, with greater scores indicating more acts of aggression in the past week.
Time frame: Baseline to 4-week, 8-week, and 20-week post treatment assessments.
State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2: State Anger (STAXI-2 S-Anger) Subscale
State-Trait Anger Expression Inventory-2 Subscale-Anger (STAXI-2 S-Anger; Spielberger, 2010) is a 15-item subscale from the STAXI-2 that measures anger. Investigators adapted the instructions to measure anger in the past week. Items in this subscale ask participants to indicate how much they are experiencing certain feelings and desires on a four-point scale ranging from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very much so). Scores are summed to assess the overall intensity of anger felt in the past week. The total score range is 15-60, with greater scores indicating higher levels of anger.
Time frame: Baseline to 4-week, 8-week, and 20-week post treatment assessments.
No study locations are listed for this record.
Plan to share: Yes — Sharing of the data collected in the conduct of the proposed project will be deposited into the National Institutes of Mental Health (NIMH) Data Archive (NDA) and the UT Health San Antonio Institutional Review Board (IRB)-approved STRONG STAR Repository (HSC2010-475H) for future use.
Supporting information: Study protocol, Statistical analysis plan, Informed consent form, Analytic code
Time frame: One year after the end of the study.
Access criteria: Any future research using Repository data will require a research protocol for the proposed study reviewed and approved by an authorized official responsible for protecting human subjects of research. The data protections for privacy and confidentiality described in the consent form will apply to any future use of stored data.
Data sharing details ↗ · www.strongstar.org
Start is estimated for Dec 2026; primary completion for Jan 2029, 25 months later.
Of 93 non-industry interventional studies with no phase under Aggression, half reached primary completion within 22 months of starting (the median), counting those still running; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 52. This study's planned 25 months is above that.
Counting every sponsor, half of 93 studies reached it within 22 months; a quarter within 13 and three quarters within 52.
How these figures are worked out, and which studies are left out of them.
From the registry record's own update history. This site started tracking changes on Sep 25, 2026; for anything earlier, see the record history on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
This study is not yet recruiting, as verified in Nov 2026. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.
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James A. Haley Veterans Administration Hospital