Post-Traumatic-Stress Disorder Analysis

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

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).

Morris states that PTSD is often thought of as being a syndrome of remembering things too well. He adds that “the ones who ‘forget,’ they suffer later” (Morris 35).

The signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can vary for everyone. Signs and symptoms can begin happening slowly, suddenly, or they can come and go. The intensity of the experience can fluctuate also.

The United States has made sure to give veterans the respect and love they need for risking their lives to keep our country and freedoms safe. From national holidays to early retirement, the government has done everything they can to help aid the veterans once they return from combat. However, with the duty of protecting our country comes the risk of veterans’ lives. Even if they survive they will have aliments that will affect them for the rest of their lives. Most of the aliments people associates with veterans returning home from battle are physical, such as losing an arm or a leg. However, the mental effects of war are far more serious than any physical wound a person could ever have. Experiencing the horror of war effects how soldiers

“Although combat increases the rate of PTSD, it is not clear that the severity of combat-related PTSD differs from PTSD associated with other traumatic experiences. Some data suggest that combat may be associated with greater severity. For example, combat veterans with PTSD tend to have more intrusive and/or hypervigilant symptoms than people with PTSD from other causes. Sleep-related symptoms may be greater in combat veterans with PTSD. On the other hand, some types of noncombat trauma may increase the severity of PTSD, such as torture or sexual assault. Some data suggest that the course of PTSD tends to occur independently of the traumatic precipitant. A common flaw is that these comparisons of PTSD course and severity rely on meta-analyses of

PTSD, as outlined in the 2013 edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, Fifth Edition (DSM-5) falls under the category of Trauma and Stressor-Related Disorders, and depicts the perfect storm of excessive adrenergic activation, exposure to intense emotional stimuli, and the influence on memory. The criteria include a category of arousal symptoms, with obvious adrenergic components. For example, arousal symptoms may be manifested as sleep disturbances, hypervigilance, concentration difficulties, and an exaggerated startle response. In fact, research shows that there is an overactive noradrenergic function in those with PTSD (Ravindran & Stein, 2009). These pair with a second set of symptoms that relate to and are informed by memory. PTSD includes a component of intrusion symptoms associated with the traumatic event(s). Intrusion symptoms include: 1) Involuntary, and intrusive memories of the traumatic event; 2) Recurrent distressing dreams in which the content and/or affect of the dream are related to the traumatic event(s); 3) Dissociative reactions (e.g., flashbacks) in which the individual feels or acts as if the traumatic event(s) were recurring; 4) Intense or prolonged psychological distress at exposure

Imagine living your entire life in constant fear. People often experience a sense of fear after living through an upsetting event. However, the feelings of fear, sadness, and anxiety slowly drift away and go back to normal. This is not the case for people diagnosed with PTSD. “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be developed following a traumatic event that threatens your safety or makes you feel helpless”. (Smith, Segal, 2014). Society oftens links PTSD with soldiers being traumatized by war events, however, anybody can develop PTSD from any type of overwhelming life experience.

Although, that presently is not the case, the experiences of Vietnam Veterans did lead to the disorders introduction into the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition (DSM-III) in 1980 (Kato, Kawata & Pitman, 2006). Since 1980, PTSD, (depicted by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (n.d.) as “an anxiety disorder that some people get

The use of new anti-PTSD drugs and treatments, particularly the ones mentioned in the report’s conclusion, should be possible only after finish of their careful and independent studies in laboratory conditions. The start of the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs to use prolonged-exposure therapy and cognitive-processing therapy long before the profound investigations on their efficiency have been made is reprehensible and disappointing fact. It’s a good luck that the mentioned forms of therapy demonstrate satisfying results, but another experiment may be less lucky.

The etiology of how PTSD has been uncover, the following will be various treatments for people who have developed the disorder. There are two types are treatments that can be used on patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. The first types of treatment that can be used are biological treatments, which involve medication such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants. The purpose of the SSRI antidepressants is to alter serotonin levels which can aid in reducing activity in the amygdala. The problem with medication is that it only works for 20-30% of patients who take this

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is triggered by an individual experiencing of a traumatic event. PTSD patients can exhibit varied behaviours which can be subtle or extreme. These behaviours include but are not exhaustive of, anger, fear, dissociative states, amnesia and negative cognition (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013). PTSD research is now able to explain certain changes in the brain which affect these behaviours. In this essay focus will be given to these brain changes and which behaviours they affect in PTSD patients.

A little background: PTSD is a psychological disorder formed from traumatic experiences that involves physical harm or the threat of physical harm that make the person feel stressed or frightened when they are no longer in danger. Signs and symptoms of PTSD can be grouped into three categories: Re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and hyper arousal symptoms . The main treatment for this is psychotherapy or

Post traumatic stress disorder also known as PTSD is a disorder that affects people who have been or witnessed traumatic situation involving actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violation. It is estimated that 7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. However, when most people think of PTSD they associate it with the military and veteran, at least that’s what first comes to my mind when that word is brought up. With that in mind I will discussing what PTSD is, its symptoms, and how it develops, and with the history of it. Along with discussing that I will be talking about how PTSD is seen in a biological perspective and how this perspective may address PTSD and the treatment biological perspective

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating neuropsychiatric condition affecting approximately 25 million Americans (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2015). PTSD is characterized by anxiety, hyperarousal, hypervigilance, and depressive symptoms that develop in individuals following a life-threatening or exceptionally stressful event (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Standard PTSD treatments primarily include cognitive behavior therapy along with medication targeted at symptom reduction, such as antidepressants, antipsychotics and anxiolytics (Baker et al., 2009; Jeffreys et al., 2012; Farach et al., 2012). However, a meta-analysis of data pooled from 92 studies has revealed that as many as half of all patients do not