Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)



Is exposure therapy an effective treatment for treating PTSD in combat veterans?

PTSD

The psychiatric disorder, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), may develop when individuals are witness to or directly experience various life-threatening events, including violent personal victimization, war combat, or natural disasters. There have been many researchers conducted in this field.

Research question

Is exposure therapy an effective treatment for treating PTSD in combat veterans?

Discussion

The history of medicine, occupational health and psychiatry has been punctuated by recurring themes related to what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). For several centuries, aversions to, and maladies from, extremely stressful events have been described, but clues to their causes have only recently been discovered. Previously called 'railway spine', 'battle fatigue' and 'shellshock', post-traumatic stress syndromes have been a topic for speculation and diagnosis when no other label will suffice. Over the past 30 years, investigation of traumatic stress has exploded and a substantial mass of research evidence has been gathered (Becka et al., 2007). Initially, this was primarily due to an interest in the uniquely pervasive symptoms of Vietnam veterans. However, tragedy is not limited to war and the development of PTSD is not limited to soldiers. The recent proliferation of PTSD research in diverse populations has added to the understanding of PTSD as a mental health disorder, to our understanding of human reactions to stress, and to knowledge about possible links between mental and physical health (Gros et al., 2011).

The symptoms of PTSD have fallen into three main categories. These categories are Intrusive, Avoidant, and Hyperarousal. Intrusive means reliving or re-experiencing the traumatic events. This can happen through flashbacks of the event, such as combat flashbacks, nightmares, such as a dream of being trapped in a burning building, and even feeling anxious as if you are back in the traumatic situation. All of the symptoms of this category are automatic responses to the traumatic event that the mind and body of the survivor are still trying to cope with.

While research on PTSD became known following the Vietnam War, it is not a new disorder. PTSD occurs in men and women, adults and children, multiple cultural groups, and all socioeconomic strata. Most people who are exposed to a traumatic, stressful event experience some symptoms of PTSD in the days and weeks following exposure (Tarrier & Sommerfield, 2004).

PTSD first appeared in the third version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (APA, 1980) and was clarified in DSM-IIIR (APA, 1987). Prior to this time, it was believed that prolonged reaction to a traumatic event was due to pre-existing personal weakness. However, with the accumulation of data indicating a consistency in reactions to combat and non-combat traumatic events, it became apparent that the nature of the traumatic event plays an important role in the reaction to that event (Steenkampa et al., 2011). Thus, the severity of the event was one of the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD and was defined as that which would be 'markedly distressing to almost ...