8 - Trauma and PTSD

Question 1

What causes latent vulnerability?

Answer 1

Childhood trauma

Question 2

What are the effects of latent vulnerability on bio-psycho-social functioning in later life?

Answer 2

Perceiving situations negatively, missing positive social cues

Hyper-vigilance, overreactions which may create more stressful events, losing friends and support from adults

Negative memories become more salient, everyday memories become less prominent

Question 3

What is PTSD characterised by?

Answer 3

Danger and helplessness activating fight flight freeze response

Provoked by triggers (any of the sensory modalities)

Question 4

What contributes to PTSD?

Answer 4

Genetics, pre-existing mental disorders, lack of social support

Question 5

What is the criteria for the diagnosis of PTSD?

Answer 5

Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence

Intrusions (of memories, dreams, flashbacks, distress, psychological reactions)

Avoidance

Negative alterations in cognitions and mood

Alterations in arousal and reactivity

(duration is more than 1 month, significant distress or impairment, not attributable to substance use or medical condition)

Question 6

What is the neurocognitive understanding of trauma-related intrusive memories?

Answer 6

Trauma memories are fragmented, not organised, come back randomly and are triggered
The more you try to ignore it the more it comes back
Sensory representations are over-encoded and contextual representations are under-encoded
Brain does not understand that experience happened in the past and is not happening again, that is why it is so distressing

Question 7

How can evidence-based psychological therapies for PTSD help?

Answer 7

Have a better understanding of the nature of the problem
Effective but difficult - expose individuals to traumatic memories, since avoidance and suppression is not effective
Decrease sensory encoding and increase contextual encoding, which decreases traumatic response