7. Post-traumatic stress disorder Flashcards
What is PTSD?
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
An anxiety disorder that forms a response to experiencing a traumatic stressor that:
- Threaten life or well being
- Overwhelm coping abilities
- Challenge the assumptions that people make about the world
Which populations are at risk of developing PTSD?
Family and relatve abuse
Assaults
Motor vehicle accident
Natural disasters
Human-caused disasters
Exposure to noxious agents (e.g. Chernobyl)
Exposure to pathogens (e.g. HIV)
Incidence of experiencing PTSD after the following events:
Rape?
Witnessing death?
RTA with injury?
Incidence rates vary with the event:
– Following rape: 80%
– Following witnessing/experiencing someone’s tragic death: 30%
– Following motor vehicle accidents with injury: 23%
Main symptoms of PTSD?
- Re-experiencing symptoms
- Avoidance of reminders of the trauma
- Hyperarousal
- Emotional numbing
What are the features of the re-experiencing element of PTSD?
- Trauma is re-experienced through intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, or nightmares
- Flashbacks feel ‘real’. Acting or feeling like the event is recurring
- Images are often described as if being in a film of the incident
- At first, the person may feel they are actually ‘in’ the film but perspective might change to an observer as they recover
What are the features of the avoidance element of PTSD?
- Avoidance of thoughts, feelings, people, places, and activities related to the event
- Difficulty remembering important aspects of the event
What are the features of the hyperarousal element of PTSD?
• Persistent feelings of over-arousal: – Irritability, anger – Being easily startled or hyper-vigilant – Insomnia – Having difficulty concentrating
What are the features of the emotional numbing element of PTSD?
- Lack of ability to experience feelings
- Feeling detached from other people
- Giving up previously significant activities
- Amnesia for significant parts of the event.
Associated symptoms of PTSD?
Guilt Shame Sadness Betrayal Humiliation Anger
What characteristics of the event are useful predictors for PTSD?
• Natural disaster vs Human-made disasters
- –>Stressors of human origin appear more likely to cause PTSD than are natural disasters
- –>How deliberate human-caused stressors are judged to be also seem to be important
What characteristics of the individual are useful predictors for PTSD?
VULNERABILITY: Previous trauma History of psychiatric illness Gender Younger and older age groups Lower SES or minority status Lower educational status
RESILIENCE
i.e. an adults capacity to maintain healthy psychological and physical functioning.
What factors are useful in predictors PTSD?
Characteristics of the event
Characteristics of the individual
ALSO, the following psychological factors:
- Personal impact of the event
- The extent of perceived control over future threats
- Own preparation to deal with stressor
- One’s beliefs and assumptions about trauma
- Social support available
Characteristics of resilient people
- Possess a flexible adaptation to challenges
- Sense of continuity in their beliefs about themselves/ lives
- Retain ability to regenerate positive experiences
What is the physiology of PTSD?
- Catecholamines prepare the body for the fight-or-flight response
- The hormone cortisol helps terminate the stress-activated reactions once the danger is over. Cortisol levels are lower so reduced ability for body to restore itself fully post-trauma
Similar to stress response
Having diminished levels of _____ may interfere with body’s ability to restore itself fully after a trauma and may be related to increased rate of physical illness in trauma survivors.
Having diminished levels of cortisol may interfere with body’s ability to restore itself fully after a trauma and may be related to increased rate of physical illness in trauma survivors.
