9/8/14: Forgotten Female Shell-Shock Victims of World War I The psychologist Dr. Charles S. Myers coined the term shell shock in an article for The Lancet in February 1915, after seeing a number of cases of mental distress in soldiers who experienced shells bursting near them at close range. Yet Myers quickly realized that many of the men exhibiting similar symptoms “had never been near an exploding shell, had not been under fire for months, or had never come under fire at all.” He admitted shell shock was “a singularly ill-chosen term,” and the British medical community quickly suggested "war neuroses" instead. But the public had already latched onto the memorable alliteration, and “shell shock" has remained in popular discourse ever since. Though a misnomer, historians have argued that shell shock provided a convenient way for doctors to separate the mental traumas exhibited by soldiers from the "effeminate associations of ‘hysteria.'”
What is C-PTSD? Why does c-ptsd exist? Complex PTSD comes in response to chronic traumatization over the course of months or, more often, years. This can include emotional, physical, and/or sexual abuses, domestic violence, living in a war zone, being held captive, human trafficking and other organized rings of abuse, and more. While there are exceptional circumstances where adults develop C-PTSD, it is most often seen in those whose trauma occurred in childhood. When an adult experiences a traumatic event, they have more tools to understand what is happening to them, their place as a victim of that trauma, and know they should seek support even if they don't want to. Another important thing to know is that the trauma to children resulting in C-PTSD (as well as dissociative disorders) is usually deeply interpersonal within that child's caregiving system. What does c-ptsd look like? Interruptions in consciousness are also a prevalent - and at times very scary - reality in Complex PTSD.
7/17/18: Improving Therapeutic Options for Patients With PTSD New medications continually emerge for a variety of diseases and disorders, but medications to treat patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have remained stagnant for decades. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), such as fluoxetine (Prozac, Eli Lilly), sertraline (Zoloft, Pfizer), and paroxetine (Paxil, GlaxoSmithKline) have dominated the market for the past 20 to 30 years and have remained the customary therapies for patients with PTSD, according to New York City-based psychiatrist Gauri Khurana, MD, MPH. “I think there are other medications to treat [PTSD] that are effective, and for some reason, this isn’t galvanizing a lot of research interest,” Khurana told MD Mag. “The bigger moneymakers are in [attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder] or antipsychotics.” Despite a general lack of research into new treatments for PTSD, the disorder has a significant and widespread impact. Tried and True? Newcomer Treatments in Trials
11/13/19: PTSD - the current picture Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common and often disabling mental condition characterised by re-experiencing, avoidance and hyperarousal phenomena. In contrast with the ICD-11 classification system, DSM-5 also requires negative alterations in cognition and mood associated with the traumatic event for diagnosis of PTSD. ICD-11 has created a new parallel diagnosis of complex PTSD for people with the symptoms of PTSD plus disturbances in self organisation (emotional regulation difficulties, negative self-concept and interpersonal relationship difficulties). The point prevalence of PTSD in the general population has been estimated at around 3% with individuals exposed to very severe and/or multiple traumatic experiences being at particularly heightened risk of suffering from PTSD. Methods Unusually, there is no stated methodology for this work. Results The paper covers many different areas and it is a challenge to adequately summarise the results. Conclusions #ISTSS2019 podcast Links