Post-traumatic stress disorder (thing)

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a psychological disorder that rears its ugly head after someone experiences a very stressful  event or a life-threatening event.  Some of these events might be military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults.  These experiences can be relived through nightmares or flashbacks.  Patients with PTSD may experience trouble sleeping or feel detached or estranged from others.  Symptoms such as these can be so severe and last so long that it can significantly impair their daily lives.  Marked biological and psychological problems are apparent in PTSD patients.

Other complications are closely related to PTSD such as:

• depression
• substance abuse
• memory problems
• cognition problems
• other problems with physical and mental health
• occupational instability
• marital problems
• difficulties parenting

This is not a new disorder.  Symptoms have been documented as far back as to the Civil War.  There are about 30 percent of men and women from war zones that have experienced PTSD.  Some of that percentage includes World War I, World War II, Korean War, Vietnam and Gulf War veterans.  Also Holocaust Survivors have experienced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

PTSD does not only occur in war veterans or men and women in the military.  It also occurs in men and women who have experienced such traumatic events as:

• rape
• childhood neglect
• sexual abuse
• childhood or adult physical abuse
• victimization
• intensive mental abuse

PTSD has been called a variety of names over the years, it has been known as:

• Battle Fatigue
• Shell Shock
• War neurosis
• Soldier's heart
• Gross stress reaction
• Transient situation disturbance
• Tunnel disease
• Railway spine disorder
• Combat stress
• Combat fatigue
• Stress breakdown
• Adjustment reaction of adult life
• Post-Vietnam syndrome
• Traumatic neurosis
• Rape trauma syndrome
• Child abuse syndrome
• Battered wife syndrome
• Buffalo Creek syndrome

There is treatment for PTSD.  It varies in the forms of psychotherapy and medication therapy.  There is no definitive treatment and no cure.  However, some treatments have proven to be quite promising in alleviating the symptoms of this disorder.  Treatments that have had much success are:

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) which works with cognition to change emotions, thoughts and behaviors.
• Pharmacotherapy (medication):  currently there is no definitive drug that has emerged as the perfect treatment for PTSD, but some medications relieve the symptoms of stress, depression and panic in many patients.
• Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR):  a relatively new treatment that draws a person's attention away from the stressful event using rapid eye movements, hand taps and sounds.
• Group Therapy where the patients discuss their fears and symptoms with others that have the same disorder.
• Brief psychodynamic psychotherapy focusing on the exact traumatic experience.

Source:  National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. 09 Aug 2004 http://www.ncptsd.org/index.html.
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