Symptoms and Treatment for PTSD

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Terr's Long Term Symptom Complexes

err who has done extensive researches on PTSD and child hood trauma has found that there are links between the childhood trauma and PTSD. He found that childhood trauma may be responsible for susceptibility of an adult to stress and PTSD. He classified childhood traumas into two groups and the symptom complexes into four groups.

Childhood Trauma

Type I : It is a result of a single unanticipated event (e.g. Tsunami) which later manifests as detailed memories and misperceptions.

Type II : It is a result of a longstanding or a repeated exposure to extreme external events, which later manifests as denial and numbing, sadness, dissociation and rage.

Sometimes there is an overlap of the two types.

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Symptom Complexes

Visualized or repetitive perception of memories of the trauma.
Repetitive behaviors
Trauma specific fears
Changed attitude about people, life and the future.

Treatment of PTSD

The aims of the treatment are

Prevention of re-experiences
Bringing back the normal fight or flight response
Correction of the already inflicted physical, physiological and psychological effects of the disorder.

So by the end of the treatment the person should be able to anticipate, understand and manage the stressful events and should be able to differentiate between the current life stresses and past trauma which incited the disorder.

The treatment should be tailored to every affected individual. This can be done by assessing the following.

The severity of the trauma.
The person's vulnerability to trauma.
The person's reaction to trauma.

There are two options in the treatment of post traumatic disorder - stress relief medications and psychotherapy.

Stress Relief Drugs

Anti depressants and anxiety relieving drugs are the mainstays in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder as depression and anxiety are important symptoms of the disorder. The drug propranolol is also showing some good effects as a stress relief medication in the treatment of post traumatic stress disorder.

Psychotherapy

Based on the assessment as described above the affected person may need an Individual or group psychotherapy. Whether it is an individual or a group approach, the psychotherapy used is called the cognitive behavioral therapy.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

This includes a detailed assessment of the individual, the inciting trauma and slowly desensitizing and making the person anticipate, understand and manage similar events. Along with this, techniques to relieve mental tension like meditation, deep breathing are done.

Outcome

The outcome is good if the intervention is early and appropriate. The most appropriate treatment for post traumatic stress disorder is by combining psychotherapy with stress relief drugs.