Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Implications For Brain
Throughout the course of this semester we have examined numerous issues which have all had different implications for the brain = behavior argument. Some who have been skeptical of the validity of this idea have been swayed by observations that processes and behaviors they originally thought to have a cloudy neurobiological basis in fact have a sound biological and physiological underpinning. One such phenomenon which can help elucidate the ongoing brain = behavior debate is Post-Traumatic Stress disorder, or PTSD. Most people are familiar in some sense with the phenomenon of PTSD. This phenomenon has been renamed, reworked, and redefined numerous times over the past century. The approach to understanding PTSD and the more general notion of traumatic experience has been an interdisciplinary undertaking, involving the fields of medically oriented psychiatry, psychology, sociology, history, and even literature (1). The reason for this interdisciplinary approach is that the greater perception of the phenomenon is seen as having much more than a simple biological basis. It is seen as having multiple external influences. This view is a result of the often overwhelming sense that whatever biological mechanisms are present must be unintelligibly complex. However, there are certain aspects of PTSD which, upon examination, allow one an easy foray into the neurobiology of the disorder. Cathy Caruth, a leading trauma theorist, discusses the definition of PTSD: "While the precise definition of post-traumatic stress disorder is contested, most descriptions generally agree that there is a response, sometimes delayed, to an overwhelming event or events, which takes the form of rep...
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... , by Cathy Caruth, a leading trauma theorist.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web3/
2) Sensorimotor Psychotherapy: One Method for Processing Traumatic Memory," from Traumatology , by Pat Ogden and Kekuni Minton.
http://www.fsu.edu/~trauma/v6i3/v6i3a3.html
3) Of One Blood , a novel by Pauline Hopkins.
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Rivers/
4)"The Repression of War Experience" , by W.H.R. Rivers.
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Rivers/
5) "The Neurophysiology of Dissociation and Chronic Disease," from Applied Psychophysiology and Biofeedback , by Robert C. Scaer.
http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Rivers/
6) "Approaches to the Treatment of PTSD" , by Bessel A. van der Kolk and Onno van der Hart.
http://www.trauma-pages.com/vanderk.htm
7) The Psychology of Fear and Stress , by J. Gray.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/bb/neuro/neuro02/web3/
Boone, Katherine. "The Paradox of PTSD." Wilson Quarterly. 35.4 (2011): 18-22. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Dissociation is harmful in many ways. It could cause the individual to have blackout, to have multiple...
Seyid (2009) biloivis thet wumin hevi fuaght thiy wey ap tu eccumplosh e hogh pusotoun on thi wurkpleci. Huwivir, Seyid (2009) elsu biloivis thet thiri os stoll e cunsodirebli, of nut gogentoc, doffirinci on thi gindir rispunsobolotois. Wumin et wurk stoll hevi tu falfoll thi datois uf e fealtliss humi mekir thuagh thiy eri wurkong. Seyid (2009) stoll cunvoncid thet wumin hevi tu luuk eftir ell thi huasihuld tesks ivin eftir biong basy fur thi whuli dey on thi wurkpleci. Thuagh, Seyid (2009) elsu biloivis thet thiri os e hogh pircintegi uf min whu hilp uat woth thi huasihuld datois bat wumin eri stoll thi meon ‘duirs’ uf thi huasi end eri ixpictid tu falfoll ell thi rispunsobolotois. Thi gindir rispunsobolotois very ivin et thi wurkpleci. Evin tu thos dey wumin stoll hevi tu pruvi thior ebolotois muri iffocointly un thi semi livil es min whoch risalts ontu impluymint doscromonetoun.
Friedman, Mathew J., MD, PhD. "PTSD History and Overview." PTSD: National Center for PTSD. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, 31 Jan. 2007. Web. 03 Dec. 2013.
The lifetime prevalence of PTSD in the general population is 6-8% and increases to 20-30% for victims of severe traumatic events (Desmedt et al., 2015). PTSD resulting from combat-related trauma is a popular topic discussed throughout the media and is commonly adapted into characters in movies and television. In this paper, post-traumatic stress disorder portrayed in the movie Brothers will be critiqued and compared to the neural correlates that underlie symptoms of the disorder in neuropsychological literature.
“Sorrow of Sarajevo” is composed of 4 stanzas. It has no rhyme scheme, he uses enjambment and caesura. It also has short and simple sentences but therefor ver...
For survivors of traumatic events, the trauma itself is often only the beginning. While some are relatively unaffected, many others will develop post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, an affliction that haunts its victims with terrifying memories, nightmares, and panic attacks. (For a comprehensive list of symptoms and diagnostic criteria, the reader may refer to the DSM-IV, relevant portions of which may be found online (7).) The National Institute of Mental Health estimates that 3.6 percent of Americans between the ages of 18 and 54 suffer from PTSD; 30 percent of those who have spent time in war zones - one million veterans of Vietnam alone - are affected (6). PTSD is treated with several forms of psychotherapy, including exposure therapy, centered around a controlled confrontation of frightening stimuli. While medication may treat co-occurring depression, anxiety, or insomnia (6), pharmacological agents targeting PTSD remain unavailable. In part, this is because researchers have only begun to describe the underlying neurobiology. Several recent studies have pointed to the brain structure known as the amygdala as a central player, but questions remain: How does this small structure "recognize" danger? How does it create emotional memories? What causes recurrence of these memories?
The American Dream is defined as the improvement of one’s self while obtaining such things as love, wealth, status, and power as one reaches the top. The dream has had different distinctions throughout the years but keeps the bases of a desire of something greater. In the past century, the ideology has transformed into the idea of owning a big house with multiple cars and a bank full of money as the indication that you have “made it.” In the novel The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author navigates his readers into a life filled with gregarious parties and extravagant cars when a man named Nick meets the untouchable Gatsby. Unable to move away from past, Gatsby devotes his life to acquire wealth and status in order to reconcile with the love of his life. The characters in the novel attempt to define their happiness with materialistic objects but the author demonstrate the truth by illustrating the illusions of the American Dream.
Lees, AJ. "The On-Off Phenomenon." Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 1989, suppl. ,pp. 29-37.
There are many different causes of PTSD such as sexual abuse, sudden death of a loved one, and war. Trauma affects people in different ways, some can develop it from watching a fellow soldier being killed, and some can develop it from losing their jobs or a divorce. Being diagnosed with PTSD is a difficult process because there are many other psychological disorders whose symptoms can overlap and are very similar. An important fact to remember is that PTSD doesn’t just affect the person suffering; it can also have secondhand effects on their spouses, children, parents, friends, co-workers, and other loved ones. Although there is no direct cure, there are many treatment and alternative treatment options to assist them in moving forward after a trauma.
The diagnosis of Post –Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) involves clusters of symptoms. They include persistent re-experiencing of the trauma, avoidance of traumatic reminders/ general numbing of emotional responsiveness, and hyper-arousal (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). In order for the possible diagnosis of PTSD the individual needs to have exposed to a
"PTSD: National Center for PTSD Home." National Center for PTSD. VA Health Care, 1 Jan.
Porth, C. (2009). Pathophysiology: Concepts of Altered Health States (8th ed.). Philadelphia: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins.
Schiraldi, G. R. (2009). The post-traumatic stress disorder sourcebook: A guide to healing, recovery, and growth. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Spiegel, D., Loewenstein, R. J., Lewis-Fernández, R., Sar, V., Simeon, D., Vermetten, E., & ... Dell, P. F. (2011). Dissociative disorders in DSM-5. Depression & Anxiety (1091-4269), 28(9), 824-852. doi:10.1002/da.20874