OCD & PTSD Flashcards
Obsessions
Persistent, repetitive thoughts/images/impulses
Are intrusive, unwanted, and inappropriate
Cause marked distress
Compulsions
Repetitive behaviors or mental acts
In response to obsessions
Used to reduce anxiety/distress of obsessions
What are some examples of compulsions?
touching/checking, balance/order, counting, cleaning, rituals (especially with specific numbers)
OCD Diagnostic Criteria
Obsessions and/or compulsions are time consuming (at least 1 hour per day) or cause clinically significant distress or impairment
What specifications come with an OCD diagnosis?
With good or fair insight
With poor insight
With absent insight/delusional beliefs
One with OCD who has _____ or _____ insight recognizes that beliefs are probably not true
good or fair
What is the prevalence of OCD annually? What about lifetime?
1-2%; 1.5-3%
True or False: OCD is equally common in gender, ethnicity, and race.
True
When is OCD onset?
Young adulthood, gradual
__% of OCD seek treatment
40
For earlier onset, OCD is more common in boys/girls
boys
Is there a biological factor in OCD?
Yes, most likely! You can inherent traits that predispose you to OCD if the environment is right
Low levels of _____ may play a role in OCD
serotonin
In the brain, one with OCD may have dysfunction in areas associated with _________ ________/brain circuits
primitive behavior
Dysfunction in which areas of the brain make it hard for one with OCD to “turn off” the neural circuits once an impulse starts
Orbital frontal region –> caudate nucleus –> thalamus
What is a drug that may help with OCD?
Antidepressant that affects serotonin
Compulsions reduce anxiety, which are reinforcing/punishing
reinforcing
What is exposure and response prevention?
Gradual exposure, mantras for self-talk, modeling, and prevent development of new compulsions
Exposure and response prevention is easier/harder when the compulsion is mental
harder
In exposure and response prevention, what is gradual exposure?
Expose client to the feared obsessive situation & prevent compulsion
True or false: In Exposure and Response Prevention, it’s good to push your clients further than they would go in real life.
True…lick that dumpster!
SUD
Subjective Units of Distress
Which treatment is best for OCD?
It really depends on the patient, but Dr. Rytwinski’s bias is CBT / exposure. : )
PTSD Diagnosis Criterion A
Traumatic event in which there was actual or threatened death or serious injury to self/others
Being exposed to a traumatic event through ____ doesn’t count for a PTSD diagnosis
media
4 types of traumatic events:
Personally experienced
Personally witnessed
Learned about event that occured to close family/friend
Repeated or extreme exposure to aversive details of traumatic event
True or false: If you experiece trauma, you get PTSD
False
PTSD Diagnosis Criterion B
Intrusive symptoms associated with trauma (recurrent & intrustive thoughts/dreams, flashbacks, intense emotional distress/physiological reactivity at exposure to reminders)
PTSD Diagnosis Criterion D
Negative alterations in thought or mood associated with trauma
PTSD Diagnosis Criterion C
Avoidance of trauma-related stimuli
PTSD Diagnosis Criterion E: Alterations in ______
Arousal
PTSD Diagnosis Criterion F: Symptoms last for at least __ months
1
PTSD Diagnosis Criterion G:
Clinically significant distress/impairment
What is the prevalence of PTSD?
3.5%
Who is more likely to get PTSD, women or men?
Women
Who is more likely to get PTSD, low SES or high SES?
low SES
The more _____ or ____ the trauma, the higher the risk of developing PTSD
often; severe
PTSD has a very high comorbidity with which three types of disorders?
depression, anxiety, substance abuse
What are some psychological risk factors for PTSD?
Avoidance
Shattered assumptions (personal invulnerability, Just World Hypothesis, self-blame)
What is the Just World Hypothesis?
“the world is meaningful and just, and things happen for a reason”
What are four treatments for PTSD?
SSRIs
Prolonged Imaginal Exposure (PE)
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT)
Eye-Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR)
In both PE therapy, there are two types of exposures
Imaginal exposure
In vivo exposure
What is imaginal exposure?
Telling the story of the trauma while both keeping the person in the present moment AND getting them to express the full emotion of the trauma
What is in vivo exposure?
Create a (safe) hierarchy and do exposure therapy, essentially.
CPT is very similar to PE therapy, but instead of talking, they _______
write it out
EMDR
Individual follows therapist’s finger with eyes while talking through the trauma
REM sleep is associated with ________ _______
consolidating memories
True or False: PTSD treatments are all pretty much the same, BUT when patients get to choose their treatment, they do better.
True
Critical Incident Stress Debriefing
victims are encouraged to talk extensively
