PTSD Treatment Assignment JUNE is PTSD Awareness Month! Go to the National Cente
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Question
PTSD Treatment Assignment
JUNE is PTSD Awareness Month!
Go to the National Center for PTSD website. This is a really terrific site focused on PTSD. While the VA's primary mission is with military populations much of the diagnostic and treatment information is relevant to PTSD resulting from many types of trauma. The site incorporates a lot of existing research. It has views for the public and for professionals with great information for both. Yes, I REALLY like the information here :-)
http://www.ptsd.va.gov/
Responses to all these questions need to be put in your own writing/words…in other words you may not copy and paste from the website. Question 1 – summarize what each of the criteria entails – you do not have to list each specific possible symptom
1) What are the DSM-V criteria for PTSD? Under professional links and PTSD overview include info on the 5 different criteria required and information on duration and anything else you deem relevant
2) What types of trauma can cause PTSD (include more detail than just 3 bullets)? Can be found under the professional links.
3) Detail the different types of treatment available, a basic explanation of what each one is and any information on how effective each treatment is. Can be found under the professional links related to the Overview of Psychotherapies for PTSD and the Treatments for PTSD. You can also refer to the article posted for in Kodiak.
4) Do you just use one treatment or do you use more than one? Explain with specifics.
5) What are some things to keep in mind specifically when working with women and trauma? There is a section on this website with this information
Explanation / Answer
Post traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD)
PTSD is a disorder that some people develop after experiecing a shocking, scary, or dangerous event such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or physical or sexual assault in adult or childhood.
Answer 1: DSM 5 Criteria for PTSD
Criteria 1: Re-experiencing symptoms: Re-experiencing the trauma through intrusive distressing recollections of the event, flashbacks, and nightmares.
Re-experiencing symptoms may cause significant problems in a person’s everyday routine. They can trigger from the person’s own thoughts and feelings. Words, objects, or situations that are reminders of the event can also lead to re-experiencing symptoms.
Criteria 2: Avoidance Symptoms : Emotional numbness and avoidance of the people, places, and activities that are reminders of the trauma.
Things, people or situations that remind a person of the traumatic event can trigger avoidance symptoms. These symptoms may cause a person to alter his or her personal routine. For example, after a bad car accident, a person who usually drives may avoid driving the car or even riding in it.
Criteria 3: Arousal and Reactivity Symptoms: Increased arousal such as difficulty in sleeping and concentrating, feeling jumpy, and being easily irritated and angered.
Arousal Symptoms are not be triggered by something that brings back the memories of traumatic event, they are usually constant. They can make the person feel stressed and angry. These symptom may make it hard to do daily tasks, such as sleeping, eating, or concentrating.
Criteria 4: Cognition and Mood Symptoms: Having negtive feelings for oneself and others, blaming oneself for what happened and difficulty in remembering the traumatic event.
Cognition and mood symptoms can begin or worsen after the traumatic event. These symptoms can make the person feel alienated or detached from friends and family members.
Symptoms usually begin within 3 months of the traumatic event, but sometimes they can also begin later. For symptoms to be considered PTSD, they must last more than a month and should be severe enough to interfere with functioning in relationships or work.
Answer 2: Type of traumatic events that can cause PTSD include
1. A serious accident such as a car crash: The person might have strong memories about the sound of the crash or a vivid picture of bloof all over oneself or someone else involved in the accident. recurring of these vivid images can be very disturbing
2. Being Violently Attacked: if a person is violently attacked, they might keep remembering the attacker's face. They might see the attacker's face in other people aswell, this itself is very anxiety provoking and can lead to not trusting and having negative feelings towards others
3. Being raped or sexually assaulted: If a person is raped or sexually assaulted they can experience panic like symptoms when watching violance on television. They can also experience flash backs, nightmares etc.
Answer 3. The main treatments for people with PTSD are medications, trauma focussed therapy or both.
Trauma Focussed Therapy for PTSD
1. Three types of Trauma Focussed Therapyfor PTSD are recommended
a) Trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy (TF-CBT) : This helps people make sense of the bad memories. Sometimes people remember the event differently than how it happened. They may feel guilt or shame about something that is not their fault. The therapist helps people with PTSD look at what happened in a realistic way.
b). Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing (EMDR): This is a fairly new treatment that can reduce PTSD symptoms such as being easily startled. It involves making rhythmic eye movements while recalling the traumatic event. The rapid eye movements are intended to create a similar effect to the way your brain processes memories and experiences while you’re sleeping.
c). Prolonged Exposure Therapy: This helps people face and control their fear. It gradually exposes them to the trauma they experienced in a safe way. It uses imagining, writing, or visiting the place where the event happened. The therapist uses these tools to help people with PTSD cope with their feelings.
Medication
The most studied medications which have proved helpful in treating PTSD include antidepressants, which may help control PTSD symptoms such as sadness, worry, anger, and feeling numb inside. Antidepressants and other medications can also prescribed along with psychotherapy. Other medications may be helpful for specific PTSD symptoms. For example,Research has shown that Prazosin may be helpful with sleep problems, particularly nightmares very commonly experienced by people with PTSD.
Answer 4: While treating PTSD, the doctors suggests a combination of treatments for the patients. doctors can recommend a cognitive therapy along with a medication to control PTSD.
Answer 5. Some things to keep in mind when treating women with PTSD are:
1. Experiencing trauma's are more comman to women as comapre to men.
2. Women develop different symptoms than men while suffering from PTSD. Women tend to be more jumpy, more trouble emotions and try hard to avoid things than men.
3. Women with PTSD are more likely to feel anxious and depressed as comapred to men
4. Women are more likely to seek treatment after traumatic even than men and they recover faster as they are more like to share feeling, thoughts and personal things with others than men.
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