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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Research Paper

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Anxiety disorders are the most predominant of all psychiatric diagnoses and affect about 18% of the population every year (Flanagan, Zaretsky, Moroz, 2010). Anxiety disorders can range from mild to severe depending on the disorder and have many different symptoms, treatments and can affect almost anyone.
What is PTSD?
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is a specific anxiety disorder characterized by exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving the personal experience or witness of an event that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of others or self (Barlow). The response resulting from the event is an intense fear, helplessness, and horror. Exposure to this event may cause symptoms such as persistent re-experiencing of the event, persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the traumatic event, numbing of responsiveness, and symptoms of increased arousal or hypersensitivity (DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Association, 2000). In order for the diagnosis of PTSD these symptoms must continue for at least one month. This disorder causes significant distress and impairment in social, occupational and other important areas of functioning for the individual and is not the same for each person …show more content…

When an individual is experiencing increased arousal the body is almost always in an alert state similar to how the body responded during the initial traumatic event. This leads to exhaustion and can have may other physical health implications. Hypervigilance and an increased startle response are other examples of increased arousal in individuals with PTSD and they may experience sleep disturbance, irritability, and impaired concentration because of the constant “fight or flight” attitude and state

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