The And Cognitive Processing Therapy ( Traumatic Stress Disorder ( Ptsd ) Essay

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.

An interesting form of treatment for PTSD is exposure therapy, this treatment is for people with PTSD as well as substance abuse disorder (Coffey). There were 126 subjects all from an unlocked 6-week community residential SUD treatment facility. The idea behind the study was to add prolonged exposure to a 12-step program for those with PTSD-SUD. It was found that as with other cases prolonged exposure is helpful to those with PTSD and if it is early on in the substance abuse issue then it is helpful with

Posttraumatic stress disorder can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event. Once the mind hits the coping threshold, it is imperative to seek professional help. The VA offers evidence-based treatments, individual, group treatments, and medications. Coping mechanisms range from individual to individual, hence the need for a diverse PTSD program. Under the evidence-based treatment there are two sections: prolonged exposure therapy and cognitive processing therapy. Prolonged exposure therapy is when someone continues to talk about their fears/trauma to gain control of feelings associated with those fears. The cognitive processing therapy is to understand the feelings associated with trauma and finding a way to replace negative feelings with positive

Among those who served in the Vietnam War, 84.8% of those diagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder still show moderate impairment of symptoms, even 30 plus years after the war (Glover 2014). As of today, the Unites States has 2.8 million veterans who served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, of those it is estimated that 11 to 20% currently suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As of 2013, a total of 12,632 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are currently diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Glover 2014). Of course it is to be taken into account that these numbers are based on those who admit to experiencing symptoms and seek treatment.

I find it troubling that our Soldier’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms are being discredited by the medical community. It appears as though there has been a shift in our commitment to the health of the men and women who served this nation. These ideas connect to the overall ideas of the unit because it provides greater insight on challenges that patients and medical professionals experience when coping with cognitive health concerns. I do not have any personal experience associated with PTSD; however, the problem that I find in this article is that it suggests the effects of trauma which causes PTSD can be measured by a universal criteria. For example, I believe this research should consider that each individual has a unique level of tolerance to trauma which may cause them to respond in varying degrees of severity. Additionally, a patient’s inability to accurately express their symptoms may play a major factor which is causing this disparity. I recommend that further research should be conducted to

The research question that I am interested in answering is whether a combined prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) approach is useful in treating veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The ideal study would include four groups: one to receive PE, one to receive CPT, one to receive both PE and CPT, and one that does not receive an intervention. The groups would consist of an equal 50/50 male to female ratio (half of the participants would be male, half would be female) to control for gender. The participants would be contacted based on information gathered about veterans with PTSD by the local U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs offices in Orange County, California.

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.

Evidence-based practices have been gaining a lot importance recently and it was so interesting to search the online libraries to actually see how many exist. It was stimulating to go onto the National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices websites and be in awe of abundance of programs. There were programs for almost every type of social work practice. While looking through the different databases in regards to evidence-based practice (EBP), one in particular really caught my attention. The particular EBP that will be discussed is known as Cognitive Processing Therapy for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I chose this specific one because I have a great interest in therapies with those suffering from PTSD.

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

A study was conducted by Monson et al. (2006) to assess the effects of (CPT) Cognitive Processing Therapy on military veterans who were suffering from PTSD. The study included sixty participants with prolonged combat-related PTSD who partook in a wait-listed controlled experiment of a CPT treatment. More than sixteen percent of the participants dropped out of the study from the original ninety-three participants who were authorized to receive treatment. Out of the sixty participants that remained the group was equally split into two groups of thirty clients (Wait Group vs. Immediate Group). The Wait Group waited for a period of ten weeks before receiving the CPT treatment, whereas the immediate group received treatment immediately. The treatment was provided twice a week and consisted of twelve CPT sessions. The results revealed overall that there were significant improvements in PTSD and comorbid symptoms in the Immediate Group in comparison to the Wait Group. The study not only revealed the importance of immediacy in treating veterans with PTSD but supports the use of cognitive–behavioral treatments in this population as well (Monson et al.,

To effectively treat Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD in combat Veterans and service members, therapists use different techniques, which are preceded by addressing any underlying pain associated with the disorder. In their research, Chard et al. (2011) reported significant modifications to the CPT protocol for use with patients in a TBI-PTSD residential treatment facility, including increasing the number of sessions per week, combining group and individual therapy, and augmenting the treatment with cognitive rehabilitation. However, their research was marred with the use of few participants which provides doubts regarding the outcome of the proposed treatment procedures. Moreover, the researchers do not state with certainty as to the

If veterans do struggle with PTSD after they return from combat the Department of Veterans Affairs, a governmental agency that helps struggling veterans recover, offers two treatments. Studies have been done to see if one of the therapies is more effective than the other. There is not yet evidence that one therapy is better than the other. Cognitive processing therapy, CPT, helps by giving the vet a new way to deal with the maladaptive thoughts that come with PTSD. It also comforts them in gaining a new understanding of the traumatic events that happened to them. One of the other benefits of CPT is that it assists the person in learning how these disturbing events change the way they look at everything in life and helps them cope with that (“PTSD: National”). The second newer option of the two is prolonged exposure therapy, which is repeated exposure to these thoughts, feelings, and situations (“Most PTSD”). This type of therapy is now a central piece in the VA’s war on PTSD. “The problem with prolonged exposure is that it also has made a number of veterans violent, suicidal, and depressed, and it has a dropout rate that some researchers put at more than 50 percent, the highest dropout rate of any PTSD therapy that has been widely studied so far,”(“Trauma Post”). Both of the therapies are proven to reduce the symptoms but both have extremely high drop out rates and low follow through. It

A moment is defined as a brief period of time. (Merriam Webster) The average lifespan of a person consists of 27,375 days, that is 39,420,000 minutes. Within those hundreds of thousands of minutes humans have the opportunity to experience a moment. These experiences can be either good, bad or neutral. A significant moment in my life was the moment I was sexually assaulted. For a long period of time that experience held a negative impact in my life but also taught me that there are too many ongoing experiences to let one moment define the rest.

What do you do when you experience a life threatening, traumatic event, and months later you are still experiencing the same frightening responses? Individuals who experience trauma are often forced to face their problems long after the event has happened. The first step to dealing with this issue would be to seek professional help as soon as possible so that they may be properly diagnosed and receive accurate treatment to overcome the intrusive symptoms. An individual who is suffering from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have experienced, witnessed, or was affected by a life

This treatment approach is based on cognitive and learning theories, tackling-misleading beliefs related to the traumatic events of acknowledgments related to the abuse and provides a supportive environment of which individuals are encouraged to talk about their traumatic experience. A numerous amount of research has been carried out to investigate into how effective CBT really can be for PTSD. (Resick et al, 2002) carried out an investigation comparing CBT with strong cognitive restructuring focus and CBT with a strong exposure focus and to a waiting-list control of rape survivors. Prior to this experiment approximately 80% of patients who completed either form of CBT no longer met the criteria for PTSD. Once this investigation was complete a follow up treatment took place of which it was noted 2% of the waiting list group had lost the PTSD diagnoses. Only a year after this investigation Bryant, Moulds, Guthrie, Dang & Nixon, (2003) restructured the experiment comparing exposure alone, exposure plus cognitive restructuring, and supportive counselling in civilians with PTSD resulting from various traumatic events. At this particular follow up 65-80% of participants who either completed either form of CBT were now clear of PTSD diagnosis, compared to less than 40% of those who completed supportive counselling.