PTSD: A Case Study

Studying the brain has been an affective result in finding out the various neurochemicals that are involved with PTSD. Brain imaging systems nowadays focus on two brain structures, the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala is involved with how we learn about our fear and hippocampus plays a role with our memory formation. Some research focuses on a hormonal system known as hypothalamic-pituitary

"Post Traumatic Stress Disorder." Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Nebraska Department of Veterans' Affairs, 2007. Web. 07 Apr. 2014.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has severely affected the lives of countless military veterans throughout the years. Consequently, there likely are many more PTSD cases that exist and go unreported, or misdiagnosed due to misconceptions when reported (Samuelson, Bartel, Jordan, & Valadez, 2017). To this extent, I am going to discuss my views on two articles. The first article explains the patient’s perceptions of PTSD symptoms. The second article explains the effects of performing Yoga as an unconventional form of treatment for PTSD patients. Each study was conducted on the men and women veterans of our Armed Forces. As citizens of the United States of America, we owe the Armed Forces a debt of

Traumatic events also produce profound and lasting changes in physiological arousal, emotion, cognition, and memory. Moreover, traumatic events may result in the severance of these normally integrated functions from one another. Traumatized individuals may also suffer from the memories of the tragic or horrifying experiences they have undergone. Frequently, as a result of these many symptoms, it becomes inevitable for the individual to develop certain complications associated with trauma-related disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.

In the realm of psychology, the field of abnormal psychology has always proven to be a challeng-ing one for the psychologists because of two reasons. First, this branch as the name suggests deals with the abnormal and aberrant population of the society and understands their behaviors and emotions that in some ways vary from the social norms so the results obtained from a research cannot be generalized. Second, the medication of the patient is purely based on the symptoms that they exhibit or report. Sometimes the feelings described by the patients might not satisfy the standard criteria outlined by the Diagnostic Manual . This might lead to a delay in medication. One such abnormal psychological disorder that came into limelight after Vietnam War is Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) .

PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, is a mental health condition that can occur after a person experiences a traumatic event such as disasters, assault or combat. This is an issue that many Veterans encounter while being involved in military duty. However, there is help available.

A study in 2008 showed that about 300,000 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffer from PTSD or major depression, and about 320,000 may have experienced at least a mild concussion or brain injury in combat (Zoroya). American society is witnessing a hasty rise in the need for treatment of PTSD for returning soldiers from Afghanistan and Iraq.

At least 50% of all adults and children are exposed to a psychologically traumatic event (such as a life-threatening assault or accident, humanmade or natural disaster, or war). As many as 67% of trauma survivors experience lasting psychosocial impairment, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); panic, phobic, or generalized anxiety disorders; depression; or substance abuse.(Van der Kolk, et al, 1994) Symptoms of PTSD include persistent involuntary re-experiencing of traumatic distress, emotional numbing and detachment from other people, and hyperarousal (irritability, insomnia, fearfulness, nervous agitation). PTSD is linked to structural neurochemical changes in the central nervous system which may have a direct

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition that can follow a traumatic incident (Emory). PTSD can stem from a variety of traumatic events, such as sexual assault, floods, being kidnapped, and major catastrophes like 9/11 (PTSD: A Growing Epidemic). A major symptom of PTSD is re-experiencing trauma by either distressing thoughts or memories, and sometimes by vivid flashbacks in the most severe cases. Other symptoms can include increased anxiety and paranoia, depression, or avoiding situations where flashbacks can be triggered. An estimated 5% of men and 10% of women experience some form of PTSD in their lives (Emory). However, in a smaller demographic, veterans, The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs have estimated

"Not long ago, most therapists who heard a story like Albert Grow's would have thought about what his experience in Vietnam did to his relationship with his family, his community and his sense of self. Few would have given much thought to what it did to his biochemistry. That is about to change. Grow, a policeman in Salem, New Hampshire, came back from Vietnam nearly 30 years ago on a "freezer flight"--a transport plane piled with body bags. At the Boston airport, a woman called him trash and spit in his face. Not long afterward, he punched out two coworkers in a photo lab because they wore black arm bands to honor the Vietnamese dead. After a brief stay on a psychiatric ward, he burned his Marine uniform in his parents' backyard. He avoided

Veterans suffering from PTSD are unable to integrate the memories of the trauma properly. Amnesia is likely to be caused by excessive norepinephrine (NE) or vasopressin release at the time of the trauma. Memories of the trauma can also be triggered by physiological arousal. They tend to relive the past and misinterpret innocuous stimuli as potential threats. They are also more sensitive to sounds. Neutralizing stimuli in the environment to attend to relevant tasks is very difficult. Instead they tend to shut down to compensate. This leads to decreased involvement in ordinary, everyday life (Van der Kolk, B., McFarlane, A., Weisaeth, L., 1996).

In August of 2010, I had the pleasure of meeting Patrick . Amongst the plethora of people milling about the meet and greet of the college circle we shook hands and exchanged pleasantries. Patrick had the face of someone who had seen more of the world than most of the 18 and 19-year-olds present and during the course of our conversation he told me that he had just returned from Afghanistan, a transfer from being a non-commissioned officer (NCM) member of the Princess Patricia Canadian Light Infantry (PPCLI) to a student at the Royal Military College (RMC), intent on becoming an officer.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects 7.7 million American adults and can also occur during childhood. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that stems from a recent emotional threat such as a natural, disaster, war, and car accidents. PTSD usually occurs from an injury or coming close death. A person who has experienced a past traumatic event has a heightened chance of being diagnosed with PTSD after a current trauma. PTSD can also be determined by looking at one’s genes, different emotions, and current or past family setting. Normally, when a person without PTSD goes through a traumatic event the body releases stress hormones, which in time returns back to normal; However, a person with PTSD releases stress hormones that do not return

The amygdala is known to learn from exposure to fear and store assessment of threat–related stimuli. The prefrontal cortex is involved in extinction and the retention of fear and is connected to the amygdala. Finally, the hippocampus encodes the context during fear learning process and sends it to the amygdala. People with PTSD have hyper-activity in the amygdala, while having hypo-activity in the prefrontal cortex and there is reduction of the hippocampus volume. This reduction may limit proper evaluation and categorization of the experience. A study on Vietnam soldiers revealed that lesions in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex resulted in the absence of PTSD. To get further into the molecular level studies been done on the hormonal system. “Stress is known to contribute to the pathogenesis of a variety of disorders, including the majority of psychiatric like major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3825244/pdf/DM30-02-343616.pdf). Research has revealed evidence that a hormonal system known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the one that gets disrupted in people with PTSD. The hormonal system is involved in normal stress reactions, so the disruption of this system in people with PTSD creates this “false alarm”. It has been suggested by some scientist that the dysfunction of the HPA system results in hippocampal damage in people with PTSD. Damage in the hormones is caused by damage to

According to a Tanielian and Jaycox (2008) study, as of September 2014 there were approximately 2.7 million American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars”. Of the 2.7 million at least 20% of the veterans in Iraq and Afghanistan wars obtained PTSD and/or depression. However, it was noted that when interviewed, the military counselors stated that they believe that the percentage rate of veterans with PTSD was much higher. The number is said to continue to increase when combined with traumatic brain injury (TBI).