Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at a Glance

Read the Facts about PTSD

May 2, 2009 Naheed Ali

Here is an article about the condition commonly known as post-traumatic stress disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychological condition first officially diagnosed in veterans and war officers. It is brought about by horrible, frightening, life-threatening, or extremely unsafe events. Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms include: re-experiencing the traumatic incident at the mental level, social avoidance, and hyperarousal.

PTSD has a lifetime prevalence of up to thirty percent, with approximately 5 million patients having the disorder in any one year. Female adolescents, mothers, and ethnic minorities tend to contract post-traumatic stress disorder more often than boys, older males, and Caucasians.

Characteristics and Variations of PTSD

Complex post-traumatic stressful disorder (C-PTSD) generally comes about from extended exposure to traumatic disaster(s) and is characterized by long-lasting issues that impact many aspects of psychological and emotional functioning.

Problems of C-PTSD involve regulating thoughts, dissociation or depersonalization, consistent depressive thoughts, perceiving the culprit of a traumatic incident as all-powerful, long-term preoccupation with the culprit, and extreme ideologies about what provides the victim a meaning to exist.

Untreated post-traumatic stress disorder can result in dire, far-reaching consequences for victims' physical and psychological functioning and personal relationships, their friends and families, and for society. Younger patients with post-traumatic stress disorder could go through significantly negative effects on their emotional and social wellbeing, as well as their overall ability to learn.

Just about any event that is life-threatening or that severely affects the psychological well-being of a person may instigate PTSD. Such happenings generally involve experiencing or witnessing an extreme accident or medical injury, getting a frightening diagnosis, or becoming the victim of a crime or extreme torture. Also, exposure to the traumatic events of warfare or terrorist attacks, enduring any form of abuse, or involvement in severe conflict can cause PTSD.

Post-Traumatic Disorder is Very Serious

Problems that tend to put patients at greater risk for contracting PTSD are: female gender, minority ethnic background, duration or magnitude of, as well as exposure to, the traumatic incident, suffering from an emotional illness prior to the disaster, and having inadequate emotional support. Risk factors for youngsters and teens can include having a learning disability and living with violence in the household.

Disaster preparedness training might be a protective initiative for post-traumatic stress disorder patients.

Drugs that treat depression (for instance, serotonergic antidepressants or SSRIs), lower the heart rate (for example, propranolol) or reinforce the action of other strong chemicals (for instance, hydrocortisol) are believed to be very useful tools in the fight against PTSD if administered in the weeks immediately following a traumatic life-changing event.

Patients who wonder whether they may be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder may benefit from taking a self-evaluation as they consider meeting with a mental health professional. Professionals may use a medical evaluation for grown-ups, youngsters, or teens. They may also employ a number of comprehensive tests with children to look for the presence of this disease.

Diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder could be difficult for professionals, since victims often arrive for the evaluation of something that appears to be unrelated to PTSD at first. Those symptoms and signs tend to consist of medical complaints, depression, or illicit substance abuse. In addition, post-traumatic stress disorder often co-occurs with manic depression, eating disorders, or other anxiety problems.

More from this Author:

Ear Infections at a Glance

Continuous Joint Pain

The Politics of Food

References:

Robert E. Hales, and Douglas F. Zatzick. (1997). "What is PTSD?" American Journal of Psychiatry. 154: 2. February.

Jovanovic T, Norrholm SD. (2009). "Posttraumatic stress disorder may be associated with impaired fear inhibition: Relation to symptom severity." Psychiatry Research. April 3 [epub].

The copyright of the article Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at a Glance in Mind/Body Fitness is owned by Naheed Ali. Permission to republish Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at a Glance in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder at a Glance