Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Introduction

Posttraumatic stress disorder or PTSD is classified as a psychological disorder in the group of disorders of anxiety, which occurs as a result of exposure to a traumatic event that involves physical harm. Is a severe emotional reaction to psychological trauma end? The stressor may involve someone's death, a threat to the patient's life or someone else, serious physical harm, or some other threat to physical or psychological, to a degree that mental defenses the person cannot assimilate. In some cases, may also occur due to a deep psychological or emotional trauma, not necessarily physical harm, but usually involves both factors combined. If a mother or father is affected (o), PTSD can lead to negative consequences for parent-child relationship and child development (Fullerton & Ursano, 2004).

In history, PTSD has had various names, and as far back as the Civil war, doctors linked the condition to the heightened involuntary heart conditions that developed in soldiers. Over time, with each new war came a new name for the disorder that started as soldier's heart, evolving into shell shock in the 1940s as the cause was believed to be exposure to exploding artillery shells, operational fatigue/combat neurosis, and finally during the Vietnam War, what is presently recognized as posttraumatic stress disorder.

Statistically there are approximately 8% of Americans with PTSD, and another 5 to 15 % of the populace that experience some other mild form of the disorder as well (Sadock et al., 2003). Members of the armed forces that experience combat are considered a group higher risk of acquiring PTSD because of increased opportunity for sometimes repeated exposure to an extremely stressful experience such as war. Further, 75% of the people who are diagnosed with PTSD have been also found to have additional co morbid disorders such as bipolar disorder or depressive disorder as well as other possible conditions

Causes

When the person goes through any event that causes intense fear leads to post-traumatic stress disorder. If the individual is already suffering from anxiety and depression, there are more chances of leading towards post-traumatic stress disorder (Glenn, 2009). As mentioned above these events can be directly or indirectly linked with them. If the individual goes through any trauma in his or her childhood, he or she also have chances of suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder as they move on their lives.

Classification of the Disorder

To make the diagnosis of PTSD based on the criteria of the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Text Revised requires the following:

The person has been exposed to a traumatic event which has submitted the following:

the person experienced, witnessed or was confronted with one or more events characterized by death or threats to their physical integrity or that of others

The person's response involved fear, helplessness or horror intense. In children this may be expressed by disorganized or agitated behavior

The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced through one or more of the following ways:

Recollections of the event recurrent and intrusive distressing that include images, thoughts or ...