STRONG STAR Consortium

The STRONG STAR Consortium, based at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, is a multidisciplinary and multi-institutional research consortium focused on developing and evaluating the most effective early interventions possible for the detection, prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related conditions in active-duty military personnel and recently discharged veterans. The consortium's director is Alan Peterson, PhD, ABPP, chief of the Health Science Center’s Division of Behavioral Medicine in the School of Medicine’s Psychiatry Department. Dr. Peterson, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel, has directed STRONG STAR since its creation in 2008 with $35 million in initial funding from the U.S. Department of Defense. Dr. Peterson also directs the Consortium to Alleviate PTSD, announced by President Obama in 2013 after its creation with $45 million in funding from the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Along with additional funding from the National Institutes of Health, Dr. Peterson oversees the world's largest research network specializing in the psychological wounds of war. This research network has over 150 military, civilian and VA collaborators from more than 40 partnering institutions conducting 25-plus studies focused on prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of PTSD and related conditions. It has earned the UT Health Science Center at San Antonio status as the international leader in a critical research area. PTSD stands out as a signature wound of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan – affecting approximately one in seven who served in the U.S. military there, or about 350,000 people affected.