Posttraumatic Stress Disorder ( Ptsd )

The diagnosis of PTSD requires one or more symptoms from three main categories. The first category is re-experiencing the event. This can include reliving the event through nightmares, upsetting thoughts, flashbacks, or anything that can remind the person of the traumatic event, making them have physical and mental reactions ("Post-traumatic Stress," 2014). Next, the second category is avoidance. The individual will avoid thoughts, activities, or conversations that can remind them of the traumatic event. The third stage to diagnose PTSD is increased arousal in your life including, a loss of interest in important things you need such as decreased sleep and being unable to concentrate in your day to day life ("Post-traumatic Stress," 2014). Major depression, substance abuse, and panic can also correlate with PTSD. This diagnosis requires these symptoms to be bad enough to interfere with your daily life and last at least a month.

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is “a mental condition that can affect a person who has had a very shocking or difficult experience and that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, etc.” (Merriam-Webster’s, n.d.) Post-traumatic stress disorder can occur after seeing a dangerous event such as war, hurricanes, car accidents, death of a loved one, and violent crimes. It can affect a victim mind, body, and the people around them. While some mental disorders are genetic, this disorder come from the things that people encounter in life. This paper will discuss the risk factor involved with post-traumatic stress disorder as well as treatments that will help overcome it and future research and approaches to treat this psychiatric illness.

This paper explores post-traumatic stress and how it is seen as a disorder. Post-traumatic stress can manifest into post-traumatic stress disorder. According to Sareen (2014), Post-traumatic stress disorder is defined in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or DSM-5 as having 4 core features that are as follows. First, the person must witness or experience a stressful event. Secondly, the person or persons would re-experience symptoms of the event that include nightmares and/or flashbacks. The person or persons would also have hyper arousal symptoms, such as concentrations problems, irritability, and sleep disturbance. The final core feature dictates

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively new diagnosis that was associated with survivors of war when it was first introduced. Its diagnosis was met largely with skepticism and dismissal by the public of the validity of the illness. PTSD was only widely accepted when it was included as a diagnosis in 1980 in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) of the American Psychiatric Association. PTSD is a complex mental disorder that develops in response to exposure to a severe traumatic event that stems a cluster of symptoms. Being afflicted with the disorder is debilitating, disrupting an individual’s ability to function and perform the most basic tasks.

Based on this article’s information I can see where some of the criteria actually apply to me, does this mean that I suffer from PTSD or are these points not actually valid ways of preforming the diagnosis that veterans should expect while they are being evaluated? As stated by David Dobbs in his article The PTSD Trap, “The diagnostic criteria for PTSD… represent a faulty, outdated construct that has been badly overextended . . . routinely mistakes depression, anxiety, or even normal adjustment. (Dobbs 6)” Through this article Dobbs explains the views of a Captain Stevens who aided in helping Iraqi GI’s that were wounded daily from crossfire or other war related injuries. Stevens had experienced traumatic events every day, he understood what the Veterans Affairs were seeing, but he did not understand how they could tell who truly had PTSD as opposed to those who were suffering from depression or the anxieties of war. When soldiers who were thought to have PTSD arrived back to the states they were then evaluated to determine if they presented with symptoms that were associated with the American Psychiatric Association’s eight key points that I mentioned above. If a soldier presented with them they were then sent for treatment to aid them in their battle against PTSD. I understand that this has been the standard for

The disorder did not become more common until it was affecting the veterans at war who are haunted by the tragedies of war. “PTSD did not become an official disorder until the American Psychiatric Association added it to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-III in 1980.” (Friedman) The DSM-III is a criterion for the classification of mental disorders that was first published in 1952. In today’s world, it is known as the DSM-V. PTSD in the DSM-III was classified as an anxiety disorder. However, today PTSD is now diagnosed as a trauma and stressor-related disorder. What we know now about PTSD is that under the classification of trauma and stressor- related disorder, a person must be exposed to a life stress related event to cause the disorder. What we also know now about PTSD is that it can occur in one of four ways: “direct exposure to trauma; witnessing trauma in person; learning a close friend or relative experienced trauma (indirect exposure); and repeated or extreme indirect exposure to aversive details of the event”

PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an increasing problem in our country. PTSD has its roots in the military, but the entire populace is subject to its effects. I served my country for the past 21 years and have seen the before and after of the effects of combat, so any discussions about PTSD, diagnosis, treatments, and cures is likely to catch my eye. In this paper, we will discuss the basics on PTSD, current rates in society, and list the possible cures and or treatments that are currently in use. The prevalence in society should show that all people should be familiar with the signs and systems, as well as knowing some of the basic treatments to assist afflicted individuals. The goal of this paper is to provide just that for the reader.

PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is a mental disorder that can stem from a traumatic experience. “The risk of exposure to trauma has been a part of the human condition since we evolved as a species.” Traumatic experiences are part of being human and will always be a part of our existence. PTSD can stem from anything as small as a fender bender in a parking lot to being in a war zone and seeing your friend get shot. We can see many soldiers from World War II and Vietnam that have this disorder. Any experience a human finds traumatic could eventually cause PTSD.

People wonder what can cause PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). There are multiple things such as domestic violence, sexual harassment, and military combat. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder victims deal with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts on a regular basis if they are not getting treatment which can be as simple as therapy once a month or as complex as taking medications daily and going to therapy on a regular basis even then victims can still experience anxiety and depression.

Emotional responses such as “intense fear, hopelessness, and horror” are no longer included in the diagnostic features of PTSD in the DSM-5. In the new DSM, behavioral reaction directly related to the traumatic experience are found to be of better use for identifying the onset of PTSD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). The DSM-5 requires the identified symptoms to be classified under four new diagnostic categories:

psychologically changed (Department of Veterans Affairs, 2012; Satel, 2011). Peterson et al. (2011) reported that combat-related trauma is the second leading cause of PTSD in men. In this section, diagnostic criteria, assessment, and interview protocols related to PTSD are discussed. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – Fourth Edition – Text Revision (DSM-IV-TR, American Psychiatric Association, 2000) outlined criteria for the PTSD diagnosis and defined it according to its symptoms, duration, and the nature of the trauma. According to the DSM-IV-TR (2000) Criterion A must be met in order for a PTSD diagnosis: “the person experienced, witnessed or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or

1. Participants must meet DSM-5 criteria for current PTSD (within the past 6 months. Subjects are allowed to have multiple traumatic events. They must have a CAPS score of 50 or higher, which qualifies them for moderate to severe PTSD symptoms.

The National Institute of Mental Health (2016) defines PTSD as “a disorder that develops in some people who have experienced a shocking, scary, or dangerous event”. Both the United States department of Veterans Affairs, and the National Institute of Mental health have similar definitions regarding what PTSD is and how to treat it. In most cases PTSD symptoms begin showing within three months of when the initial incident occurred. However, in some cases, they can begin years after the traumatizing event, often being triggered by an outside entity. For an individual to be diagnosed with PTSD they must meet a specific set of criteria. To be diagnosed with PTSD a person must suffer from symptoms such as re-experiencing the event, avoidance, arousal and reactivity (trigger re-experience event), and cognition and mood symptoms (National Institute of Mental Health, 2016). All of these symptoms must be present in a client for at least one month before being diagnosed with PTSD.

PTSD is the abbreviation for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The general classification according to the DSM-V is 309.81 with an Axis I. This disorder is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder rather it is now classified as a trauma and stressor related disorder. That means anyone who experienced (direct exposure), witnessed or was confronted with an event that they might have feared for their life, and or caused serious injury to them, such as a sexual trauma event like rape. This can happen to anyone at any age, it is not just a soldier’s disorder and it haunts them for a very long time. In order to be diagnosed with PTSD there is a criterion that they use to evaluate or meet the individual’s needs for treatment. The

The fifth edition of the DSM, released in 2013, no longer considered PTSD an anxiety disorder. Instead, PTSD was moved to a new chapter called Trauma and Stress Related Disorders (Sareen, 2014). Additional criteria were also added to the fifth edition and in order to satisfy a PTSD diagnosis, a client must have at least one or more symptoms in each of the criterias from A through H. Typically, symptoms occur three months following the trauma. However, in some cases, there could be delayed expression which would represent a delay of months or years before a client meets the diagnostic criteria. In this instance, the symptoms may have been present immediately following the trauma; however, the postponement was in meeting the full criteria. Furthermore, PTSD symptoms can appear in individuals starting at the age of one years old. As a result, additional criteria was implemented for the diagnosis of children under the age of six as their PTSD symptoms differ from those seven years old or older (American Psychiatric Association & American Psychiatric Association,