PTSD Flashcards
What is anxiety?
Future-directed, combining negative mood and physical symptoms and apprehension (APA, 2000)
Moderate and high amounts of anxiety?
Moderate are useful as strong motivation to improve performance. High levels impede performance
High levels of anxiety
Anxiety emerges in absent of immediate threat, evoking a stop, look, listen response
Features of anxiety
Affective (worry), physiological (heart racing), cognitive (catastrophic thoughts), behavioural (avoidance), mood (anger, depression)
According to NICE (2011), what are the gender stats for PTSD
3% women, 2.5% men
Triple vulnerability threat of anxiety (Barlow, 2000)
Genetic vulnerability + acquired psychological vulnerability + specific psychological vulnerability (event/threat)
Chapter of PTSD in DSM 5 (APA, 2013)
Trauma and Stress Related Disorders
What is PTSD triggered by?
An event e.g war, accident, natural disasters, sudden death of a loved one
Highest percentages of people with PTSD
50% abused children, 45% battered women, 36% raped adults then veterans, firefighters and police
Characteristics of PTSD during event
Feelings of fear, helplessness and horror
Characteristics of PTSD after event
Flashbacks, avoidance of reminders, detachment, sleep disturbance. In children- regressive behaviours e.g bed wetting
Example of the Joneses PTSD
Albano et al (1997): dog attacked 6 y/o, facial injuries; mum and 4 siblings got PTSD.
What category did PTSD used to be in the DSM 4?
Anxiety disorders and syndromes
What is acute stress disorder
Only diagnosed within 1st month, 70% will develop PTSD
What is chronic stress disorder
More than 3 months after event: avoidant, comorbidity, delayed response
DSM 5 criteria of PTSD
Exposure to event, persistent re-experience of event, persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with event, persistent symptoms of increased arousal, duration more than 1 month, disturbance causes clinically significant distress/ impairment
Stats of PTSD
Low rates in UK war aid WW2 study (Rachman, 1991)
20% post car accident (Taylor and Koch, 1995), 1 in 3 who have trauma (NICE, 2005; 2012)
Cognitive predictors from prospective cohorts directly after trauma and follow up
Catastrophic thinking and guilt
Longitudinal study (Breslau and colleagues, 2006)
- 823 6 year olds
- measured acting out
- followed until 17
Found: - acting out more than doubled risk of exposure to trauma
- high IQ decreased chances of exposure to trauma
- Anxiety rates increased risk of PTSD
Evidence that proximity and severity are predictors of PTSD
Only present in 67% of Vietnam war prisoners despite them all being tortured and deprived
Barlow (2000) triple vulnerability theory predictor
PTSD- biopsychosocial predictor
Longitudinal study (Breslau and colleges, 2006)
- 823 6 year olds
- measured acting out
- followed until 17 and measured traumatic events
- Found: acting out doubled risk, high IQ decreased chances, anxiety rates increased risk of PTSD
Gunner and Fisher (2006)
Parenting styles affect anxiety
Basoglu et al (1997): 2 groups (N=34, N=55) torture survivors from turkey
Unpredictability and uncontrollability of stressors increase PTSD distress