MIRECC / CoE

Rocky Mountain MIRECC for VA Suicide Prevention - Nazanin Bahraini PhD

Updated: 8 December 2023

Biography

Nazanin H. Bahraini PhD

Title: Acting Director
Clinical/Research Psychologist
Contact:
720-723-6490
nazanin.bahraini@va.gov

 

Biography: Dr. Bahraini is a Clinical Research Psychologist and Acting Director at the Rocky Mountain MIRECC for suicide prevention. In addition, she is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She obtained a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Denver in 2008 and completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the Rocky Mountain Mental Illness, Research, Education and Clinical Center (MIRECC) in 2010. She is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of Colorado.

 

Dr. Bahraini's research primarily focuses on designing and testing implementation interventions to improve the uptake of evidence-based practices in suicide prevention in the Veterans Health Administration (VHA). Along these lines, she is interested in stepped implementation strategies and adaptive designs to examinine which types of interventions may be more effective in different healthcare settings. She has worked closely with the Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention (OMHSP) to develop and implement national suicide prevention programs and initiatives, including REACH VET and the VA Suicide Risk Identification Strategy (VA Risk ID). She recently received a QUERI Partnered Evaluation Initiative to develop an adaptive implementation strategy, which provides different degrees of implementation support in a step-wise fashion, to improve the uptake of suicide risk screening and evaluation in VHA ambulatory care settings.

 

Other areas of research interests include:
·   Development and validation of quality metrics and clinical performance measures for suicide prevention
·   Effective strategies for implementation of clinical practice guidelines for suicide prevention
·   Optimization of audit and feedback interventions to increase the quality of suicide risk screening, assessment and management
·   Use of social media to improve dissemination of suicide prevention research

 

Year of Licensure: 2010

 

Clinical and Research Interests: Rehabilitation and recovery of Veterans with mild traumatic brain injury and psychiatric comorbidity; clinical outcomes research in traumatic brain injury; dissemination and implementation of suicide prevention interventions and clinical practice guidelines

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Recent Publications

Brenner LA, Bahraini NH. Concussion and risk of suicide: who, when and under what circumstances? Nat Rev Neurol. 2019 Mar;15(3):132-133. doi: 10.1038/s41582-019-0136-x. PubMed PMID: 30696951.

Barnes SM, Monteith LL, Forster JE, Nazem S, Borges LM, Stearns-Yoder KA, Bahraini NH. Developing Predictive Models to Enhance Clinician Prediction of Suicide Attempts Among Veterans With and Without PTSD. Suicide Life Threat Behav. 2018 Sep 11. doi: 10.1111/sltb.12511. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 30206955.

Mohatt NV, Billera M, Demers N, Monteith LL, Bahraini NH. A menu of options: Resources for preventing veteran suicide in rural communities. Psychol Serv. 2018 Aug;15(3):262-269. doi: 10.1037/ser0000203. PubMed PMID: 30080083.

Monteith, L. L., Bahraini, N. H., Gerber, H. R., Dorsey Holliman, B., Schneider, A. L., Holliday, R., & Matarazzo, B. B. (2018). Military sexual trauma survivors’ perceptions of veterans health administration care: A qualitative examination. Psychological Services. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/ser0000290

Monteith, L. L., Gerber, H. R., Brownstone, L. M., Soberay, K. A., & Bahraini, N. H. (2018). The phenomenology of military sexual trauma among male veterans. Psychology of Men & Masculinity. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/men0000153

Monteith, L. L., Brownstone, L. M., Gerber, H. R., Soberay, K. A., & Bahraini, N. B. (2018). Understanding suicidal self-directed violence among men exposed to military sexual trauma: An ecological framework. Psychology of Men and Masculinity. dx.doi.org/10.1037/men0000141

Bahraini, N.H., Monteith, L.L., Gerber, H.R., Forster, J.E., Hostetter, T.A., & Brenner, L.A. (2017). The Association Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Perceptions of Deployment-Related Injury in Veterans With and Without Mild Traumatic Brain Injury. Journal of Head Trauma Rehabilitation. doi: 10.1097/HTR.0000000000000307.

Monteith, L.L., Bahraini, N.H., & Menefee, D.S. (2017). Perceived burdensomeness, thwarted belongingness, and fearlessness about death: Associations with suicidal ideation among female veterans exposed to military sexual trauma. Journal of Clinical Psychology. Advance online publication. doi:10.1002/jclp.22462

Monteith, L.L., Bahraini, N.B., Matarazzo, B.B., Gerber, H., Soberay, K.A., & Forster, J.E. (2016). The Influence of Gender on Suicidal Ideation following Military Sexual Trauma among Veterans in the Veterans Health Administration. Psychiatry Research, July, doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2016.07.036

Barnes, S. M., Bahraini, N. H., Forster, J. E., Stearns-Yoder, K. A., Hostetter, T. A., Smith, G., Nagamoto, H. T. and Nock, M. K. (2016), Moving Beyond Self-Report: Implicit Associations about Death/Life Prospectively Predict Suicidal Behavior among Veterans. Suicide and Life-Threat Behavi. doi: 10.1111/sltb.12265

Brenner, L.A., Betthauser, L.M., Bahraini, N., Lusk, J.L., Terrio, H., Scher, A., Schwab, K. (2015). Soldiers Returning From Deployment: A Qualitative Study Regarding Exposure, Coping, and Reintegration. Rehabilitation Psychology. [Epub ahead of print]

Brenner, L.A., Bahraini, N., Homaifar, B.Y., Monteith, L.L., Nagamoto, H., Dorsey-Holliman, B., Forster, J.E. (2015). Executive Functioning and Suicidal Behavior among Veterans with and without a History of Traumatic Brain Injury. Archives of Physical Medicine Rehabilitation. [Epub ahead of print]

Miller RS, Weaver LK, Bahraini N, Churchill S, Price RC, Skiba V, Caviness J, Mooney S, Hetzell B, Liu J, Deru K, Ricciardi R, Fracisco S, Close NC, Surrett GW, Bartos C, Ryan M, Brenner LA. Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen on Symptoms and Quality of Life Among Service Members With Persistent Postconcussion Symptoms: A Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA Intern Med, 2015; 175; 43-52.

Bahraini NH, Breshears RE, Hernández TD, Schneider AL, Forster JE, Brenner LA. Traumatic Brain Injury and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Psychiatr Clin North Am. 2014 Mar;37(1):55-75. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24529423

Bahraini NH, Devore MD, Monteith LL, Forster JE, Benseng S, Brenner LA. (2013). The role of value importance and success in understanding suicidal ideation among Veterans. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science. Volume 2, Issues 1–2, 15 April 2013, Pages 31–38 http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212144713000057

Bahraini N, Simpson GK, Brenner LA, Hoffberg AS, Schneider AL. (2013) Suicidal Ideation and Behaviours after Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review. Brain Impairment / FirstView Article, pp 1-21. http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8942701&fileId=S1443964613000119

Brenner, L. A., Hoffberg, A. S., Shura, R. D., Bahraini, N., & Wortzel, H. S. (2013). Interventions for mood-related issues post traumatic brain injury: Novel treatments and ongoing limitations of current research. Current Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Reports, September 2013, Volume 1, Issue 3, pp 143-150 http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40141-013-0022-1

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Media

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Grants/Funding

Examining the Effectiveness of an Adaptive Implementation Intervention to Improve Uptake of the VA Suicide Risk Identification Strategy (PI: Bahraini)

VA Quality Enhancement Research Initiative

This national quality improvement project will utilize an adaptive strategy to improve implementation of VA Risk ID to fidelity. Using a sequential multiple assignment randomized trial (SMART) design, two evidence-based implementation strategies will be evaluated: 1) Audit and Feedback (A/F); 2) A/F plus External Facilitation (A/F+EF). We will evaluate these strategies across several domains based on the RE-AIM QuEST mixed methods framework. In addition to focusing on implementation outcomes, such as the impact of these strategies on implementation of VA Risk ID to fidelity, and potential barriers to adopting these strategies, we will examine the impact of the clinical innovation (i.e., VA Risk ID) on patient-level outcomes.
https://www.queri.research.va.gov/national_partnered_evaluations/suicide_identification.cfm

Understanding Impact of VHA's New Suicidal Ideation Screening Initiative: Veterans' Perspectives (PI: Dobscha)

VA Health Services Research & Development

The primary goal of this study is to characterize Veteran experiences with VHA's new SI screening process and the clinical evaluation that takes place in response to screening results. We will also examine the extent to which screening process variables are associated with mental health treatment utilization over six months.

Co-Investigator

Pathways to Partnership - Suicide Prevention for Rural Veterans (PI: Mohatt)

VA Office of Rural Health

This Enterprise Wide Collaborative Rural Access Intervention for Rural Veteran Suicide Prevention integrates multiple evidence-based practices and existing VA programs (e.g., suicide risk management in primary care, crisis support, firearm safety, and the Home-Based Mental Health Evaluation [HOME] program) into a comprehensive portfolio of best practices that work synergistically to strengthen VA and community partnerships to empower and mobilize communities around suicide prevention, improve access for rural Veterans, and effectively target known risk and protective factors for suicide.

Co-Investigator

Towards Optimizing Behavioral Markers of Suicide Risk (PI: Barnes)

VA Clinical Services Research & Development

This study will utilize computerized reaction-time tasks that serve as behavioral markers of suicide risk to evaluate the theory that suicide-related cognitive processes are likely to emerge when people who are at risk of suicide experience distress. If this is the case, inducing a dysphoric mood prior to administering the tasks should optimize their accuracy for identifying Veterans at high risk of attempting suicide in the near future.

Co-Investigator

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