Dysregulation: A Case Study

Post-traumatic stress disorder has a major effect on school-age children. Not only it can impact their academic performance but also their well-being. A post-traumatic stress disorder can happen after experiencing or witnessing an event that threaten one’s life or make one question his or her safety. Such event includes an accident, death, war, a serious illness, a sexual abuse, a physical assault, a domestic violence or a natural disaster. As a result to experiencing or witnessing such trauma, a post-traumatic stress disorder may develop but it all depend on how severe is the trauma, how people around the individual (such as parents) react to the trauma, and how far or close the person is to the trauma.

Measures The Life Events Checklist was created by the National Center for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder to facilitate the diagnosis of PTSD. The list of experienced or witnessed events includes those that have been found to be predictive of the diagnoses of PTSD, anxiety, and depression and is one of the most frequently used instruments by researchers to assess potentially traumatic event exposure across countries and cultures. Although one event may be associated with multiple event categories, it is not possible to establish from the data how many events were included in multiple categories. Each of the six event categories was scored as 1 if an event was reported and zero if no event was reported. Table 3 describes rates of reported potentially traumatic events, including the percentages of children reported to have ever experienced the event, experienced the event more than one time, and experienced the event in the 12 months prior to the interview. The nonorphan sample experienced fewer event categories than the sample of orphaned and abandoned children, yet 87% reported at least one event; 13% experienced four or more types of events. Figure 1 suggests that the relationship between potentially traumatic events and PCL-S scores, but

Upon the initial impact of a traumatic experience an individual can experience a vast number of psychological and physical reactions. Trauma is unique to each individual and therefore reactions to trauma and

Method of Selection for subjects: Recruitment techniques included a psychiatric hospital in the Boston area which yielded one inpatient participant. Secondly, outpatient recruitment occurred in the Eugene and Portland areas of Oregon, and Seattle, Washington area. Correspondence explaining the study was sent to clinicians and treatment centers focused on dissociation or trauma within these locations. Lastly, information was sent through email and posted on a website detailing the

In an academic journal wrote by Abigail Powers, Negar Fani, Dorthie Cross, Kerry J. Ressler, and Bekh Bradley, there is a focus on a study to "determine specific associations between exposure to childhood abuse, PTSD symptoms, and current psychotic disorder" (Powers et al., 2016). This group of researchers and doctors measured PTSD by a scale called Clinicain Administered PTSD, measured psychotic disorders by using the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview, measured child abuse with the Childhood Trauma Questionaire, and also measured lifetime trauma exposure with the Traumatic Events Inventory (Powers et al., 2016). According to the academic journal wrote by Powers' research team, the CTQ is a 25-item, self-report

American Psychological Association defines traumatic event “as one that threatens injury, death or the physical integrity of self or others”(American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Childhood trauma is the experience of traumatic event or events which creates a substantial and long term damage to the mental and physical growth and development of a child(National Child Traumatic Stress Network, 2013). National prevalence of childhood trauma indicates trauma is a frequent occurrence in which majority of Americas have witnessed or experienced a single or multiple traumatic events before adulthood. A 2013 study by National Survey of Children’s Health reported about 35 million children in the United States, almost half of the nation’s children population, have experienced one or more serious traumas().According to National Center of Mental Health Promotion and Youth Violence report, almost 26% of children witness or experience a traumatic event before the age of four. Reports from Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHS) in 2011 found 60% of adults report witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event as a child. The Great Smoky Mountain study found 67% of participant had been exposed to one or more traumas before the age of 16().

In this case, the subject I chose to study resembles many characteristics of the subjects that I researched about. The subject was diagnosed with PTSD at a young age and since has felt many similar psychological symptoms as those that have been studied by others. Excessive anxiety, fear, numbness, and detachment from others are signs of common behavioral issues that occur in individuals who go through a traumatic experience at a young age (Crandell, Crandell & Vander Zanden, 2012). The way a child is nurtured during development has much to do with how they react to life as they mature and go through adulthood (Ortigo, 2013). The subject in this study reported to have been raised well, but may not have had the most outstanding emotional support for the feelings and confusion he had about his traumatic experience during development. This has led to a few issues in relation to self and others throughout life.

Trauma can be described as a severe emotional or mental distress caused by an experience that impedes one’s ability to cope. According to the American Psychiatric Association (2000), Traumatic experiences can significantly alter a person’s perception of themselves, their environment and the people around them. Traumatic experiences can manifest itself and, in turn, have a greater impact on one’s ability to function. The ongoing effects of trauma and the intensity of the experience as stated by Evans and Coccoma (2014), can have an impact on all aspects of human life that is inclusive of the biological, cognitive, emotional and social interactions.

I will use 150 young adults (18-35 years old) for the study. Participants will be a nonprobability sample recruited on a voluntary basis from participating couple’s counseling offices. They will be recruited from a couple’s counselor because it is a convenient way to find individuals who are having issues in their current relationship. This will expedite the process of looking for a connection between childhood trauma and its effect on current relationship problems. Flyers will be put in the counselor’s lobby with information about the study, instruction for how to volunteer, and researcher contact information. The flyer will clearly state that all participants will be given a confidentiality agreement.

Researchers conducted a study on posttraumatic stress disorder in adult female survivors of childhood sexual abuse. By looking at this study I can compare the severity of the abuse to the symptom (posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD). 76 help seeking women was recruited through a network of self-help groups and therapist in the Los Angeles area. Of those 76 women, 45 women experience childhood sexual abuse. The comparison group consisted of 31 women who did not experience childhood sexual abuse. The participants met with researchers for about 2 to 3 hours. They then completed numerous materials such as a demographic questionnaire (used to gather demographic and historical information), the AEIII (used to measure CPA exposure), the SAEQ (used to measure CSA exposure) and other forms. The women were then interviewed with SCID (a structured clinical interview designed to assess for the diagnostic criteria for a variety of disorders). As a result, the severity of the abuse linked to PTSD was alarming. In terms of abuse severity, 23% reported experiencing contact sexual events but not penetration; 33% reported digital or object penetration but not penile penetration; and 44% reported penile penetration. The mean score on the 10-item AEIII PP Scale was 3.3 (SD = 2.5) for the CSA group and 1.1 (SD = 1.6) for the comparison group. A t test determined that this difference was significant, t(74) =

To evaluate participants’ perceived change in overall distress symptoms after the intervention, a comparative analysis of the data will be completed. To inform the other study question (to see how current trauma scores correlate to current self-sufficiency scores). The research team will enter scores from each of the RHS-15 questions into SPSS individually, and a new variable (rhstot) will be created, which is the sum total score of the 14 questions. Scores for each of these seven self-sufficiency variables will be entered into the

The study was a between-subjects design. One hundred and fourteen subjects were recruited from two major trauma centres in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-four participants failed to complete

The voluntary sampling process was appropriate because it mostly contributes to reliable outcomes (Burnard, 1991). However, the researchers did not fully indicate the sampling method; nevertheless, the inclusion criteria employed was justified because it offered the sampled persons a sense of ownership and the impetus to take part in the process more freely. Unlike other methods, the methodology provided first-hand data (Forchuk & Roberts, 1993). On the other hand, socio-demographic disparities among the sampled

After our participants have been selected they will be greeted and will receive an informed consent form explaining the nature of the study and how they were selected.

“5 out of 100 American children are hospitalized for a major acute or chronic illness, injury, or disability” (Medical Traumatic Stress, n.p.).