Module 4: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

Question 1

What is PTSD?

Answer 1

Exposure to actual/threatened death, serious injury or sexual assault.
Exposure can be direct experience, witnessing it happen to others, learning the event happened to close friend/family, repeated extreme exposure to aversive details of event.
Duration of the disturbance is more than 1 month.

Question 2

What is the Prevalence of PTSD?

Answer 2

10% of people develop PTSD after experiencing trauma.
15% of men and 8.5% of women experience PTSD from combat in Vietnam Wars.

Question 3

What is the Onset of PTSD?

Answer 3

Onset at any age.
Symptoms usually have onset within 3 months of traumatic event.
50% remit within 3 months of onset.
33% do not recover, despite professional treatment.

Question 4

What are the Risk Factors for PTSD?

Answer 4

Severity of trauma.
Past history of stress, abuse or trauma.
History of behavioural or psychological problems.
Comorbid psychopathology.
Cognitive factors.
Genetic factors.
Subsequent exposure to reactivating environmental events.
Lack of social support.

Question 5

What is Ehlers & Clark’s Cognitive Model of PTSD?

Answer 5

Proposal that negative appraisals maintain PTSD.

Question 6

What are the Treatments for PTSD?

Answer 6

Psychological: psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, behavioural experiments, exposure, cognitive defusion, mindfulness.
Pharmacological: anti-depressants, beta-blockers, anxiolytics.

Question 7

What is OCD?

Answer 7

Characterised by unwanted repetitive thoughts (obsessions) and/or actions (compulsions).
Thoughts are often dystonic and recognised as unreasonable.
Obsessions and compulsions are clinically significant

Question 8

What are Obsessions?

Answer 8

Recurring, persistent thoughts, impulses or images that are intrusive, inappropriate or distressing.
Person must attempt to ignore/neutralise thoughts with another behaviour

Question 9

What are Compulsions?

Answer 9

Repeated behaviours/mental acts an individual feels they must perform, behaviours aimed at reducing anxiety or risk of a threatening outcome.

Question 10

What are the Most Common Obsessions?

Answer 10

Contamination (45%)
Pathological doubt (42%)
Somatic obsessions (36%)
Need for symmetry (31%)
Aggressive thoughts (28%)
Sexual (26%)
Other (13%)
Multiple (60%)

Question 11

What are the Most Common Compulsions?

Answer 11

Checking (63%)
Washing (50%)
Counting (36%)
Confess/reassurance (31%)
Symmetry/precision (28%)
Hoarding (18%)
Multiple (75%)

Question 12

What is the Onset of OCD?

Answer 12

Usually teens or adulthood.
Equally common in adult men and women, but onset is earlier for males.
Onset can be insidious or abrupt

Question 13

What are the Dysfunctional Assumptions Characterising OCD?

Answer 13

Having a thought about the action is like performing it.
Failing to try and stop harm is the same as having initially caused it.
Responsibility is not attenuated by other factors.
One can/should control their thoughts.

Question 14

What are the OC Spectrum Disorders?

Answer 14

Hoarding disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, muscle dysmorphia.

Question 15

What are the Treatments for OCD?

Answer 15

Psychological: psychoeducation, cognitive restructuring, behavioural experiments, exposure with response prevention, cognitive defusion, mindfulness.
Pharmacological: SSRI’s, clomipramine, antipsychotics, anxiolytics.

Question 16

What is the most Effective Psychological Treatment for OCD?

Answer 16

Exposure with response prevention.