disorders of trauma and stress Flashcards
what brain area concerns stress?
hypothalamus- brain interprets danger, NT in the hypthalamus activates the autonomic nervous system + endocrine system
what two pathways produce arousal and fear reactions?
- sympathetic nervous system pathway (parasympathetic nervous system is the inverse- calms body down)
- hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway
what happens with the pituitary gland stimulaton?
hypothalamus stims the pit. gland to release adrenocorticotropic hormone (major stress hormone), which stims adrenal glands, releasing corticosteroids including cortisol
acute stress disorder
when symptoms start w/in a month after the event and last less than a month. 80% turn into PTSD
PTSD, how diff from acute stress disorder?
can start months or years after event, last longer than month
bioligical factors of ptsd
biochemical arousal may continue, and damage brain areas
pregnant women may pass on high cortisol levels
personality factors of ptsd
people who are more anxious, who don’t feel in control of events in their life, and who cant find positives in negative events are more predisposed
social support
ppl w weak family/social support systems more likely to develop it
what is the most helpful treatment for ppl with PTSD
exposure therapy , especially in vivo (real, not imagined)
eye movement desensitizing and reprocessing
clients move their eyes in a rythmic manner side to side while flooding minds w triggering mems
psychological debriefing
to prevent/reduce PTSD, victims of trauma recount the event and their emotions abt it in detail as soon after event as possible
-however, studies have found its ineffective or even detrimental
dissociative disorders
one part of a persons memory or identity becomes dissociated w the rest
dissociative identity disorder
person has multiple personalities (subpersonalities) often w/o access to each others mems and thoughts. Host/primary personality is most present.
avg number of personalities is 15/women, 8/men (could be 100 or more)
really increased in 80s and 90s, decreased in last 15 years
dissociative amnesia disroder
cant recall important events/info, usually stressful ones
-localized (all of a mem), selective (some but not all), generalized (extends before event) or continuous (forgetting continues into present)
depersonalization-derealization disorder
feel like theyve become detached from experience of self/mental processes, or watching experience from outside
distortions in perceptions of body parts (bigger/smaller)
dissociative fugue
forgets all details of past lives, flee to a new location. Often more outgoing. Ends abruptly. Totally reversable.
what 3 ways can subpersonalities interact?
- mutually amnesic: no awareness of each other
- mutually cognizant: each aware of each other
- one way amnesic relationships: most common, some aware of others (coconscious personalites) but its not mutual.
how do subpersonalities differ?
- appearance (race, age, gender, size)
- abilities and preferences (if learned to sew in one, couldnt do it another)
- physiological responses (brain activity response to stimuli resembles diff people )
psychodynamic view of dissociative disorders
-fear of the dangerous world (from the trauma they experienced) is too much and unconsiously flee to another personality who can look at event safely from afar
behavioral view of dissociative disorders
dissociation is a response learned from operant conditioning
temporary relief when mind drifts to other subjects
state dependent learning
if ppl learn something when in a particular state of mind/situation, more likely to remember it when in that same sitch.
-ppl who develop dissociative disorders may have state to memory links that are particularly rigid (mems/skills/etc tied ONLY to a particular state of arousa)
self hypnosis theory of dissociative disorders
the dissociation is a form of self hypnosis, to forget horrifying events
how is dissociative amnesia disorder treated
often goes away on its own
if not, then leading treatments are:
psychodynamic (particularly well suited, bc of emphasis on unconscious and memories)
drug
hypnotic
support for all largely from case studies, not controlled experiemnets
how is dissociative identity disorder treated
1) recognize fully the nature of the disorder (first bond w client, maybe introduce subpersonalities to each other)
2) recover gaps in mem (same approaches as w amnesia- difficult tho bc some SP’s may try to protect primary P from remembering)
3) try to integrate the subpersonalities (final merging=fusion. SP’s may view this as death, distrust the process.
