AB: Trauma Disorders

Question 1

How do trauma-related disorders differ from all other major DSM diagnoses?

Answer 1

Trauma-related diagnoses rest on the idea that horrific life experiences can trigger serious psychological symptoms. These diagnoses contrast with all other major DSM diagnoses, which are defined entirely by symptom profile

Question 2

What does PTSD entail?

Answer 2

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) entails an extreme response to a severe stressor, including recurrent memories of the trauma, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, negative emotions and thoughts, and symptoms of increased arousal.

Question 3

How does the diagnostic define serious trauma?

Answer 3

an event that involves actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violation.

Question 4

What are the four symptom clusters that the DSM requires for the diagnosis of PTSD?

Answer 4

• Intrusively re-experiencing the traumatic event.
• Avoidance of stimuli associated with the event.
• Other signs of negative mood and thought that developed after the trauma.
• Symptoms of increased arousal and reactivity

Question 5

What other difficulties is PTSD tied to?

Answer 5

feeling less satisfied in their relationships, and rates of marital dissatisfaction and divorce are high compared with the general population. Unemployment is common as well. Suicidal thoughts are common among people with PTSD), as are incidents of nonsuicidal self-injury. People with PTSD also show high rates of medical illness

Question 6

Name an intrusion symptom which may be observed specifically in children

Answer 6

Repetitive play regarding trauma themes or reenactment of trauma during play

Question 7

prolonged exposure to trauma, such as repeated childhood abuse, might lead to a broader range of symptoms than those covered by the DSM criteria for PTSD. Some have proposed that this syndrome be referred to as complex PTSD. Why has this not been carried out?

Answer 7

prolonged trauma can lead to more severe PTSD symptoms but does not result in a distinct subtype with unique symptomatology

Question 8

How does acute stress disorder differ from PTSD?

Answer 8

the duration is shorter; this diagnosis is only applicable when the symptoms last for 3 days to 1 month.

Question 9

What are the concerns regarding ASD? (2)

Answer 9

the diagnosis could stigmatise very common short-term reactions to serious traumas,, Second, the diagnosis of ASD is not very predictive of who will develop PTSD.

Question 10

What are the advantages of classifying ASD as a disorder?

Answer 10

ASD diagnosis may encourage providers to identify people who could use more support after a trauma., there is also evidence that treating ASD may help prevent the development of PTSD

Question 11

Is PTSD usually comorbid with other disorders? What disorders are comorbid with PTSD?

Answer 11

Of people diagnosed with PTSD by 26, 93% had been diagnosed with a mental disorder before 21.
Anxiety: 2/3, major depression, substance abuse, conduct disorder and personality disorders.

Question 12

What gender differences are there in PTSD

Answer 12

Men usually war, women usually rape. Among people exposed to a trauma, women are 1.5 to 2 times as likely to develop PTSD as are men

Question 13

What is a possible reason for this difference?

Answer 13

In studies that control for history of sexual abuse and assault, men and women have comparable rates of PTSD

Question 14

What risk factors are there for PTSD? (4)

Answer 14

Genetics, childhood exposure to trauma and greater amygdala activation and diminished activity of regions of the medial prefrontal cortex in response to threat.

Question 15

What psychological model is often applied to PTSD

Answer 15

Mowrer’s two-factor model of conditioning has been applied to PTSD

Question 16

How does living in a country at war influence chances of developing PTSD?

Answer 16

simply living in a country at war does not increase the risk of PTSD, perhaps because many in these countries do not witness the violence; in contrast, those who directly witness atrocities are at a fourfold higher risk than the general population of developing PTSD

Question 17

What was the number of psychiatric admissions in WWII closely correlated with?

Answer 17

how many casualties occurred in their battalions. 98 percent of men with 60 days of continuous combat would develop psychiatric problems

Question 18

Regarding the nature of the trauma what matters in its effect?

Answer 18

Type, severity and type of trauma

Question 19

Give an example of how type of trauma matters

Answer 19

Traumas caused by humans are more likely to cause PTSD than are natural disasters

Question 20

Beyond regions tied to anxiety disorders (amygdala and prefrontal cortex) what brain area does PTSD seem to be uniquely related to? Why may this be?

Answer 20

Hippocampus, it plays a central role in our ability to locate autobiographical memories in space, time, and context.

Question 21

What style of coping may be more likely to produce symptoms of PTSD?

Answer 21

people who cope with a trauma by trying to avoid thinking about it

Question 22

What symptoms do most of the studies on avoidance focus on? Why is this?

Answer 22

symptoms of dissociation (such as feeling removed from one’s body or emotions or being unable to remember the event.) People who have symptoms of dissociation during and immediately after the trauma are more likely to develop PTSD.

Question 23

What factors help people adapt to severe traumas more adaptively?

Answer 23

cognitive ability and strong social support

Question 24

What positive effects can trauma have?

Answer 24

an increased appreciation of life, renews a focus on life priorities, and provides an opportunity to understand one’s strengths in overcoming adversity

Question 25

What type of medication is proven to relieve symptoms of PTSD? What is the downside of this?

Answer 25

SSRIs and SNRIs, both provide relief from PTSD symptoms as compared with placebos. Nonetheless, many patients relapse after medications are discontinued. Psychological treatments appear more powerful than medications are for the treatment of PTSD

Question 26

What is the primary psychological approach to treating PTSD?

Answer 26

Exposure treatment

Question 27

What is the focus on in exposure therapy for PTSD?

Answer 27

memories and reminders of the original trauma, with the person being encouraged to confront the trauma to gain mastery and extinguish the anxiety

Question 28

When it is not safe or feasible to return to the site of the trauma what technique is often utilised?

Answer 28

imaginal exposure—that is, the person deliberately remembers the event. Therapists have also used virtual reality technology to treat PTSD.

Question 29

When can treatment be particularly hard and require more time? Why is this?

Answer 29

Treatment might be particularly hard and require more time when the client has experienced recurrent traumas during childhood, as repeated trauma exposure can interfere with learning to cope with emotions

Question 30

What effects did the introduction of teaching skills to regulate emotion with exposure therapy have?

Answer 30

several positive gains compared with standard exposure treatment, including diminished PTSD symptoms, improved emotion regulation, enhanced interpersonal functioning, and lower rates of posttreatment relapse

Question 31

Describe three forms of cognitive therapy used in treating PTSD

Answer 31

reducing overly negative interpretations about the trauma and its meaning and to help a person address their intrusive memories, bolstering people’s beliefs in their ability to cope with the initial trauma and Cognitive processing therapy, designed to help victims of rape and childhood sexual abuse dispute tendencies toward self-blame

Question 32

Does internet based therapy appear to work for PTSD?

Answer 32

no

Question 33

What is involved in CISD and what does research show about it?

Answer 33

Critical incident stress debriefing (CISD) involves immediate treat- ment of trauma victims within 72 hours of the traumatic event. those who received CISD tended to fare worse