Task 2 - PTSD Flashcards
1
Q
Traumas leading to PTSD
A
- natural disasters
- human-made disasters (wars, terrorist attacks, torture)
- sexual assault
2
Q
environmental/social factors
A
- strong predictors of reaction to events: severity, duration, individual proximity
- social support -> the more the better
3
Q
Psychological factors
A
- if experiencing anxiety/depression already before trauma -> PTSD more likely
- style of coping:
- self destructive/avoidant coping -> more likely
- dissociative -> those who do shortly after trauma are more likely
4
Q
gender
A
- women more likely
- may experience triggers for anxiety disorders more often (rape)
- types of trauma frequently experienced are stigmatized -> decreases social support
5
Q
Cultures
A
- more pressure in Mexico than US for women to be passive, self-sacrificing, compliant and for men to be dominant, fearless and strong
- > mexican women feel more helpless than men following a trauma
- > tendency to dissociate greater among latinos
6
Q
Neuroimaging findings
A
- > brain regions regulating emotion, fight or flight response and memory
- Amygdala: more actively responding to emotional stimuli
- Medial PFC: modulates activity of Amygdala -> less active in people with severe symptoms -> less able to dampen reactivity
7
Q
hippocampus
A
- shrinkage
- > possibly due to overexposure to neurotransmitters and hormones in stress response
- > may lead to memory problems
8
Q
cortisol
A
- released as fight flight response
- resting levels of cortisol tend to be lower! among people with PTSD
- those who developed: lower levels after trauma
-> lower levels may result in prolonged activity of sympathetic NS following stress
9
Q
cortisol
A
- released as fight flight response
- resting levels of cortisol tend to be lower! among people with PTSD
- those who developed: lower levels after trauma
- > lower levels may result in prolonged activity of sympathetic NS following stress
- > cortisol breaks down stress-related substances in your body -> so with lower amounts of cortisol -> body will stay ‘stressed’ for a longer time
10
Q
Hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis
A
- unable to shut down response of sympathetic NS by secreting necessary levels of cortisol
- overexposure of brain to epinephrine, norepinephrine
- > cause memories to be ‘overconsolidated’ or planted more firmly in memory
11
Q
Genetics
A
- vietnam veterans: if one identical twin had PTSD, other one was more likely than if fraternal twins
- adult children of holocaust survivers with PTSD -> 3x more likely to also develop it
- abnormally low cortisol levels may be one heritable risk for PTSD
12
Q
CBT
A
- systematic desensitization
- relaxation techniques
- imagine event vividly
- help client to habituate to anxiety and distinguish memory from present reality
13
Q
Stress-management interventions / stress- inoculation therapy
A
- teach clients skills for overcoming problems in their lives that increase their stress and may result form PTSD
- when patient cannot tolerate exposure to traumatic events as in exposure or cbt
- example: marital problems, social isolation
14
Q
Biological Therapies
A
- selective seretonin reuptake inhibitor
- benzodiazepines (but less effective)
15
Q
conditioning theory
A
- Trauma (US) associated with situational cues (CS)
- when cues encountered again -> arousal and fear
- conditioned responses do not extinguish bc of avoidance responses
- theory doesn’t explain why some people develop it and other don’t
- cannot explain symptoms like dissociation
16
Q
Emotional processing theory
A
- severe traumatic experiences are of such major significance to individual
- > lead to formation of representations and associations in memory
- > quite different to those formed as a result of everyday experience
-Individuals who prior to trauma have fixed views about themselves and world are more vulnerable to PTSD.
17
Q
Mental defeat theory
A
- negative frame of thinking
- process info about trauma negatively and view themselves as unable to act effectively as well as victims
- negative approach ads to distress and influences way individual recalls trauma
18
Q
Evidence for mental defeat theory
A
- PTSD sufferers have negative views of self and world
- > negative interpretations of trauma, PTSD and of responses of others
- > belief that trauma has permanently changed their life