PTSD is usually treated by a combination of psychotherapy (cognitive-behavioral therapy, group therapy, and exposure therapy are popular) and drug therapy (antidepressant or atypical antipsychotics, e. g. brand names such as Prozac (fluoxetine), Effexor (venlafaxin), Zoloft (sertraline), Remeron (mirtazapine), Zyprexa (olanzapine), or Seroquel (quetiapine)). Talk therapy may prove useful, but only insofar as the individual sufferer is enabled to come to terms with the trauma suffered and successfully integrate the experiences in a way that does not further damage the psyche. Forbes et al. (2001) have shown that a technique of “rewriting” the content of nightmares through imagery rehearsal so that they have a resolution can not only reduce the nightmares but also other symptoms. The US FDA recently approved a clinical protocol that combines the drug MDMA (“Ecstasy”) with talk therapy sessions (this doesn’t mean that Ecstasy has proven efficiency for treating PTSD). Basic counseling includes education about the condition and provision of safety and support (Foa 1997). Cognitive therapy shows good results (Resick 2002), and group therapy may be helpful in reducing isolation and stigma (Foy 2002).

Dr. Jan Bastiaans of the Netherlands has developed a form of psychedelic psychotherapy involving LSD, with which he has successfully treated concentration camp survivors who suffer from PTSD.

PTSD is often comorbid with other psychiatric disorders with depression and substance abuse being the most common.

There have been scores of other treatments suggested for the treatment of PTSD. Two of these controversial techniques are Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) and Traumatic Incident Reduction (TIR). EMDR is a technique developed by Dr. Francine Shapiro (Shapiro 1989), in which the therapist induces eye movements in the client which is meant to access the traumatic event and allow the integration of emotions and sensations that occurred during the traumatic event. Critics claim that EMDR is no more effective than CBT and that it derives its benefits from the therapist client interaction and not the eye movements. The link was once thought to be through the rapid eye-movements (REM) of sleep. During REM sleep the individual is presumably processing what she has experienced during the day. In PTSD the realistic nightmares of reexperiencing the trauma could be seen as unsuccessful processing of the trauma during REM sleep. It was proposed that EMDR then supposedly mimicks the brain’s activities during REM sleep. However, numerous studies have demonstrated that neither eye movements nor alternating attentional movements make any additive effect to the therapy which also demonstrates inferior long term outcome in comparison to exposure based treatments (Devilly & Spence, 1999).

TIR is a less well known technique for reducing and eliminating the effects of a traumatic event. TIR is more of a graduated exposure technique that is controlled by the client. In TIR the client retells the trauma and releases the emotions held in check. In addition the client remembers the event and allows the conscious mind to process any decisions, intentions and cognitive distortions that might have occurred during or after the trauma. Practitioners who have been trained in both EMDR and TIR report that TIR is safer because it is focused on a single event and EMDR can occasionally trigger several events and multiple emotions. Interviews with these practitioners have suggested that, while they continue to use both techniques, TIR is the preferred intervention for known traumatic events where the client wants insight and understanding about the event and the aftereffects of the trauma. Both TIR and EMDR have been described as unscientific. TIR is derived from Scientology and has no controlled outcome studies to back any of their claims. It is not an empirically supported treatment and, under no circumstances, should this be a first-line treatment.

Israel military is experimentally treating PTSD with Marijuana.

Lisa Angelettie, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist, author, and life coach. She has been helping people make smarter life choices since 1998. Get more free tips like this when you subscribe to the GirlShrink newsletter .

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “PTSD”. You are free to copy & use this article under the terms of the license. *Please note that a courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated

PTSD – Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a term for the psychological consequences of exposure to or confrontation with stressful experiences, which involve actual or threatened death, serious physical injury or a threat to physical integrity and which the person found highly traumatic. Symptoms can include reexperiencing phenomena such as nightmares and flashbacks, emotional detachment or numbing of feelings (emotional self-mortification) combined with regular hyperarousal and possibly sleep abnormalities (insomnia), avoidance of reminders and extreme distress when exposed to the reminders (“triggers”), with irritability and excessive startle.

Experiences likely to induce the condition include childhood physical/emotional or sexual abuse, adult’s experiences of rape, war and combat exposure, violent attacks, natural catastrophes, and life-threatening complications at childbirth (and perhaps its accompanying exhaustion). For most people, the emotional effects of traumatic events will tend to subside after several months. If they last longer than that then consideration should be given to diagnosing a psychiatric disorder. Most people who experience traumatic events will not develop PTSD. PTSD is primarily an anxiety disorder and should not be confused with normal grief and adjustment after traumatic events. There is also the possibility of simultaneous suffering of other psychiatric disorders (i.e. co-morbidity).

PTSD may have a delayed onset of years or even decades and may be triggered by even a specific body movement (if the trauma was stored in the procedural memory mainly), or by another stressful event such as the death of a family member or someone else close, or by the diagnosis of a life-threatening medical condition. Once PTSD reaches the criteria for diagnosis the untreated course is generally for some worsening and then stability of the level of symptomatology over many years.

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Symptoms can include general restlessness, insomnia, aggressiveness, depression, dissociation with reality, emotional detachment, or nightmares. Amplification of other underlying psychological conditions may also occur. Young children suffering from PTSD will often enact aspects of the trauma through their play, and may often have nightmares that lack any recognizable content.

One patho-psychological way of explaining PTSD is characterized by viewing the condition as secondary to deficient emotional or cognitive processing of a trauma (Cordova 2001). This view also helps to explain the three symptom clusters of the disorder (Shalev 2001).

Intrusion. Since the person cannot process the difficult emotions in a normal way, he/she is plagued by recurrent nightmares, or daytime flashbacks, while he/she realistically reexperiences the trauma. These reexperiences are characterized by high anxiety levels, and make up one part of the PTSD symptom cluster triad called intrusive symptoms.

Hyperarousal. PTSD is also characterized by a state of nervousness with the organism being prepared for “fight or flight”. The typical hyperactive startle reaction characterized by “jumpiness” in connection with high sounds or fast motions is typical for another part of the PTSD cluster called hyperarousal symptoms, and could also be secondary to an incomplete processing.

Avoidance. The hyperarousal and the intrusive symptoms are eventually so distressing that the individual strives to avoid contact with everything, and everyone, even her own thoughts, that can arouse memories of the trauma and thus cause the intrusive and hyperarousal states to go on. He/She isolates him/herself, being detached in his/her feelings with a restricted range of emotional response, and can experience so-called emotional numbing. This avoiding behavior is the third and most important part of the symptom triad that makes up the PTSD criteria. The avoidance behavior could also be explained by a feeling of being different due to both the exclusiveness of the trauma and the strange and painful symptoms of intrusion and hyperarousal causing depersonalization.

Lisa Angelettie, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist, author, and life coach. She has been helping people make smarter life choices since 1998. Get more free tips like this when you subscribe to the GirlShrink newsletter .

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article “Post Traumatic Stress Disorder”. You are free to copy & use this article under the terms of the license. *Please note that a courtesy copy of your publication would be appreciated.

As the financial ripple effect of the devastation of hurricane Katrina slowly begins to creep across the country, there is also another cost of this tragedy – an emotional one.

For the first time in this country’s modern history, we have our own group of refugees. Families with no homes, no where to go, no resources, nothing.

This type of devastation is almost imaginable to the average American citizen, but yet it has happened. People are dying from dehydration, drowning, and as the stagnant water ages – soon – people will be dying from disease.

The emotions of these hurricane victims must be all over the radar. From sadness, to depression, to utter hopelessness. From frustration, to anger, to total rage.

As a mental health professional, and a human being, this tragedy left me feeling stunned, upset, and overwhelmed. I can only imagine the feelings of the victims.

Something as devastating as hurricane destruction, much like the recent tsunami, will leave hundreds, even thousands of the people traumatized. Many families will feel the effects of the stress of these events for months to come. And that is a normal adjustment period after such a devastating loss. But then there will be some who may begin to suffer from what is called Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD).

This disorder is usually discussed in mainstream media in conjunction with war veterans – such as troops which have returned from tours in Iraq, Desert Storm, Vietnam, Korea etc. It is primarily an anxiety disorder brought on by a traumatic event.

Symptoms in adults can include:

1. general restlessness

2. insomnia

3. aggressiveness

4. depression

5. dissociation with reality

6. emotional detachment

7. nightmares

Symptoms in children may appear as:

1. Act out aspects of the trauma (such as escaping from the flood waters) through their play

2. Have nightmares that may or may not be about the trauma

*Learn more about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD.

As the Nation begins to heal from this devastating natural disaster, let’s remember that these victims will need all sorts of help.

- Financial Aid
- Medical Aid
- Clothing
- Housing
- Counseling Services
- Help for their Pets

Anything that we can all do to help will encourage the emotional healing process of those who have suffered such loss. Here is a list of resources for those in need and for those seeking to help.

– The American Red Cross: The Red Cross has set up some 250 shelters to house 42,000 evacuees. For more information, go to http://www.redcross.org/.

– The Salvation Army: The Salvation Army is looking for volunteers to help in the affected areas. You can sign up online at www.saussw.org/crd/dsrreg.nsf/registrationw?OpenForm. In addition, victims of the storm needing assistance can call the Salvation Army for help at 1-888-363-2769.

– The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS): Humans aren’t the only victims of Katrina’s wrath.  HSUS has deployed its Disaster Animal Response Teams to the region who are equipped to respond to the needs of all animals including pets, horses, farm animals, and wildlife. For more, go to http://www.hsus.org/.

– The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA): The FEMA Web site, http://www.fema.gov/press/2005/resources_katrina.shtm, provides information for evacuees on how to get help and also includes a list of organizations and agencies soliciting donations for the relief effort, as well as volunteers to help in the affected areas.Â

– The Salvation Army’s Team Emergency Radio Network (SATERN): SATERN has been activated to help individuals send a health and welfare request regarding family and friends they otherwise are unable to locate. You can access SATERN on the Salvations Army’s Web site at: www.salvationarmyusa.org/usn/www_usn.nsf

– NOLA.com: This Web site, which provides information on New Orleans, now includes a missing person forum at http://www.nola.com/forums/searching.

– Yahoo: Yahoo provides several Hurricane Katrina message boards broken out by city, colleges, and relief centers to allow people to post messages looking for family and friends, or to say they are okay, at http://boards.news.yahoo.com/boards/.

Resources:

National Center for PTSD
PTSD Alliance

* Resource List Source: ASA

Lisa Angelettie, M.S.W., is a psychotherapist, author, and life coach. She has been helping people make smarter life choices since 1998. Get more free tips like this when you subscribe to the GirlShrink newsletter .

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