Post-traumatic stress disorder

1
Post-traumatic stress disorder
psychlotron.org.uk
2
Clinical characteristics

• Exposure to traumatic event
• Risk of death/injury to self/others
• Re-experiencing the event
• Flashbacks, dreams, intrusive memories
• Avoidance of trauma cues
• Talking, thinking, activities, amnesia
• General unresponsiveness
• Detachment, alienation, numbness

psychlotron.org.uk
3
Clinical characteristics

• Lifetime prevalence 1-2.6 in general population
• Risk climbs with intensity severity
• Large individual differences
• Social support reduces risk
• Onset following trauma may be delayed

psychlotron.org.uk
4
Explaining PTSD

• Need to account for
• Clinical features
• Variation in susceptibility
• Main perspectives
• Biological
• Psychodynamic
• Behaviourist
• Cognitive

psychlotron.org.uk
5
Biological perspective

• Damage to endocrine systems associated with
  stress
• Exaggerated stress responses
• Noradrenergic burnout
• Inherited vulnerability
• PTSD risk higher where family has a history of
  anxiety

psychlotron.org.uk
6
Psychodynamic perspective

• Delayed onset amnesia may indicate repression
  mechanisms
• Some evidence that early trauma increases
  vulnerability to PTSD

psychlotron.org.uk
7
Behaviourist perspective

• Conditioned response to trauma cues
• Re-experiencing type symptoms consistent with
  this
• Avoidance symptoms possibly due to operant
  learning

psychlotron.org.uk
8
Cognitive perspective

• Trauma disrupts normal information processing
• Inability to assimilate experiences
• State/context dependent memories
• Vulnerability schema

psychlotron.org.uk
9
Treatments for PTSD

• Biological - drugs may help relieve anxiety
  symptoms
• Others - agree on the need to re-expose patient
  to trauma
• Catharsis (psychodynamic)
• Deconditioning (behaviourist)
• Assimilation reality testing (cognitive)

psychlotron.org.uk