Post Traumatic Stress

Post Traumatic Stress occurs following the witnessing of life threatening events such as natural disasters, terrorist incident, violent personal assaults survivals of trauma, etc. Some of people will have stress reaction in the form that they do not go away on their on.

The person suffering from Post Traumatic Stress experiences nightmares and flashbacks, they feel detached or estranged and these symptoms are very much severe and they last long enough and finally impair the person’s daily life.

The Posttraumatic Stress disorder is generally marked by clear biological changes and psychological symptoms. It frequently occurs in association with disorders such as depression, absence of memory and cognition and other problems related to mental health.

The disorder is also associated with impairment of the person’s ability to function properly the family life, including occupational instability problems, divorces, family discord and parenting. Posttraumatic stress disorder is not a new disorder. History of such symptoms goes back to ancient time when the disorder was known as “Da Costa’s Syndrome.”

Post Traumatic Stress Causes

Most of the people who are exposed to a traumatic event, experience some of the symptoms near about days and weeks following the exposure. The course of chronic posttraumatic stress usually involves the symptoms increase followed by remission and although some individuals may experience the symptoms that are unremitting and severe.

In recent years, a great deal of research, aimed at testing reliable assessment generally thought that the best way to diagnose any psychiatric disorder, for that matter is the findings from structured interviews and questions with physiological assessments

People who experience greater stress, unpredictability, uncontrollability, victimization and betrayal are at higher risk of developing Posttraumatic stress disorder. Person who lives in social environment that produces guilt, stigmatization or self-hatred.

Post Traumatic Disorder is generally associated with a number of neurobiological and physiological changes, associated with stable neurobiological alternations, that is the central altered brainwave activity, and decreased volume of hippocampus.

Both the hippocampus and the amygdala are the processing and integration of memory, has also been found to be involved in coordination of body’s fear response. Psychophysiological alterations associated include hyper-arousal of the sympathetic nervous system, sleep abnormalities, etc.

People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder tend to have abnormal level of hormones involved in the body’s response. Thyroid function also seems to be enhanced with Post Traumatic stress disorder. Headaches, gastrointestinal complaints, dizziness, chest pain and discomforts of the parts of the body are very common.

Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress

It is treated by a variety of psychogenic and drug therapy. There is no treatment, but some treatments appear to be promising, especially cognitive-behavioral therapy and exposure therapy. At present, cognitive behavioral therapy appears somewhat more effective than drug therapy. Exposure therapy involves having the patient repeatedly reliving frightening on the biologic basis have spurred new drugs, which have much-increased efficacy.

Bookmark:

Please submit your Suggestions / Tips here. We value your input

© 2004-2009, iymed.com. All rights reserved