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firebird
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Posted - 11/13/2008 : 10:49:19

This is the place I would like to start a discussion and info on Post Traumatic Stress and Dissociation that can be a dual diagnosis for people suffering with Depression.

firebird
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Posted - 11/21/2008 : 06:58:34

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is an emotional illness that develops as a result of a terribly frightening, life threatening, or otherwise highly unsafe experience. PTSD sufferers re-experience the traumatic events or events in some way, tend to avoid places, people, thoughts and feelings that remind them of the event (avoidance), and are exquisitely sensitive to normal life experiences, (hyper arousal). Although this condition has likely existed since human beings have endured trauma, PTSD has only been recognized as a formal diagnosis since 1980. However it was called different names as early as the American civil war, when combat veterans were referred to it as suffering from "soldiers heart". In World War 1, symptoms that were generally consistent with PTSD, were referred to as "combat fatigue". Soldiers who developed such symptoms in World War 2 were said to be suffering "gross stress reaction", and many who fought in Vietnam who has symptoms now known as PTSD were assessed as having "post-Vietnam syndrome". PTSD has also been called "battle fatigue" and "shell shock".

Complex Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD), usually results from prolonged exposure to repeated traumatic events (prolonged childhood abuse),(capitvity) and is characterized by long lasting problems with many aspects of emotional and social functioning.
Approximately 7% to 8% of people in the US will likely develop PTSD in their lifetime, with the lifetime occurrence (prevalence) in combat veterans and rape victims ranging from 10% to 30%. Somewhat higher rates of this disorder have occurred in African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans, compared to Caucasisians in the US.
(but you have to remind yourself this is just in the US NOT around the world).
Some of the difference is thought to be due to higher rates of dissociation soon before and after the traumatic event (peri-traumatic); a tendency for individuals from minority ethnic groups to blame themselves, have less social supports, and an increased perception of racism for those ethnic groups; as well as differences between how ethnic groups may express distress. Other important facts about PTSD include the estimate that 5 million people will suffer from PTSD at any one time in the US and the fact that women are twice as likely to develop PTSD than as men.

Almost half of of individuals who use out-patient mental health services have been found to suffer from PTSD. As evidenced by the occurrence of stress in many individuals in the US in the days following the 2001 terrorist attacks, not being physically present at a traumatic event does not guarantee that one cannot suffer from traumatic stress that can lead to PTSD.

PTSD statistics in children and teens reveal that up to more that 40% that have endured at least one traumatic event, resulted in the development of PTSD, in 15% of girls and 6% in boys. On average, 3% to 6% of high school students in the US and as many as 30% to 60% of children who have survived specific disasters have PTSD. Up to 100% of children who have seen a parent killed, or endured sexual abuse, physical abuse or neglect tend to develop PTSD, and more than one third of youths who are exposed to community violence will suffer from the disorder.

from article by: Roxanne Dryden-Edwards, MD

To be continued....

firebird
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Posted - 11/21/2008 : 14:06:02

What are the effects of PTSD?

Untreated PTSD can have devastating far-reaching consequences for sufferer's functioning and relationships, their families and for society. Women who were sexually abused at an early age are more likely to develop complex PTSD and borderline personality disorder. Babies that are born to mothers that suffer from this illness during pregnancy are more likely to experience at least one chemical change in their body, that makes it more likely (predisposes) the baby to develop PTSD in later life. Individuals who suffer from this illness are at risk from having more medical problems, as well as trouble reproducing. Emotionally, PTSD sufferers may struggle to achieve as good an out come from mental health treatment, as that of people with other emotional problems. In children and teens, PTSD can have significantly negative effects on their social and emotional development, as well as ability to learn.

What causes PTSD?
Virtually any event that is life threatening or that severely compromises the emotional well being of an individual may cause PTSD. Such events often include either experiencing or witnessing a severe accident or physical injury, receiving a life threatening medical diagnosis, being victim of kidnapping or torture exposure to combat or a natural disaster, other disasters such as plane crash, terrorist attack, being victim of rape, mugging or assault enduring physical, sexual, emotional or other forms of abuse, and also involvement in civil conflict.
What are the risk factors and protective factors for PTSD?
Issues that tend to put people as higher risk for developing PTSD include increased duration of the traumatic event, higher severity of the trauma experienced, having an emotional condition prior to the event, having little social support as in family or friends. In addition to those risk factors, children, adolescents females and people with learning disabilities or violence in the home, have a greater risk of developing PTSD after a traumatic event.

While disaster preparedness training is generally seen as a good idea in terms of improving the immediate physical safety and logistic issues involved with a traumatic event, such training may also provide important protective factors against developing PTSD. That is evidenced by the fact that those with more professional training-level and experience (for example, police, firefighters, mental health professionals, para-medics and other medical professionals) tend to develop PTSD less often when coping with disaster than those without the benefit of such training or experience.

Some medications have been found to help prevent the development of PTSD. Some medicines that treat depression decrease the heart rate, or increase the action of other body chemicals are thought to be effective tools in the prevention of PTSD when given in the days after an individual experiences a traumatic event.

firebird
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Posted - 11/21/2008 : 14:53:53

What are the signs and symptoms of PTSD?

The three groups of symptoms that are required to assign the diagnosis of PTSD are;

Recurrent re-experiencing of the trauma (for example, troublesome memories, flashbacks that are usually caused by reminders of the traumatic events, recurring nightmares about the trauma and or dissociative re-living of the trauma).

Avoidance to the point of having a phobia of places, people and experiences that remind the sufferer of the trauma and the general numbing of emotional responsivness.

Chronic physical signs of hypo arousal, including sleep problems, trouble concentrating, irritability anger, poor concentration, blackouts or difficulty remembering things, increased tendency and reaction to being startled, hyper-vigilance to threat.

The emotional numbing of PTSD may present as a lack of interest in activities that used to be enjoyed (anhedonia), emotional deadness, distancing oneself from people and or a sense of foreshortened future (for example, not being able to think about the future or make future plans, not believing one will live much longer). At least one re-experiencing symptom, three avoidance/numbing symptoms and two hyper- arousal symptoms must be present for at least one month and must cause significant distress or functional impairment in order for the diagnosis of PTSD to be assigned. PTSD is considered of chronic duration if it persists for 3 months or more.

A similar disorder in terms of symptom repertoire is Acute Stress Disorder. The major differences between the the two disorders are that acute stress disorder symptoms persist for two days to four weeks, and fewer number of traumatic symptoms are required to make the diagnosis as compares to PTSD.

In children, re-experiencing the trauma may occur through repeated play that has trauma related themes instead of through memories, and distressing dreams that may have general content rather than of the traumatic event itself. As in adults, at least one re-experiencing symptom, there avoidance/numbing symptoms, and two hyper-arousal symptoms must be present for at least one month and must cause significant distress or functional impairment in order for the diagnosis of PTSD to be assigned. When symptoms have been present for less than one month, a diagnosis of acute stress disorder (ASD) can be made.

Symptoms od PTSD that tend to be associated with Complex PTSD include: problems regulating feelings, which can result in suicidal thoughts explosive anger, or passive aggressive behaviors a tendency to forget the trauma or feel detached from ones own life (dissociation) or body (depersonalization), persistent feelings of helplessness, shame, guilt or being completely different from others:; feeling the perpetrator of trauma is all powerful and a preoccupation with either revenge against or allegiance with the perpetrator: and severe change in those things that give the sufferer meaning, like a loss of spiritual faith or an ongoing sense of helplessness hopelessness and despair.

to be continued...

warblaster
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