PTSD: Mental Disorder Following Stressful Events - Essay Sample

Introduction

Bisson & Roberts (2015), defines Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a weakening mental disorder that is frequently associated with psychiatric comorbidity or can be referred to as a psychological problem that develops after exposure to extremely stressful events, such as deaths, injuries, death threats, and injuries that are experienced by close friends or family members. Not everyone who has been exposed to the mentioned events develops Post-traumatic stress disorder; it is estimated that Post-traumatic stress disorder occurs to only 10% of females and 5% of males in the United States of America (Kar, 2011). According to research, the prevalence of PTSD in America is estimated to be 8%. PTSD has widely been reported in military combat males and sexually abused females. Post-traumatic stress disorder is arguable by a wide range of discernment, physiological, and developmental symptoms, such as irritability, sleep disorders, and hyperactivity. By this, I mean that people who have PTSD often re-experience the trauma, experience difficulty in sleeping, and always perceive to be indifferent and alienated.

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Post-traumatic stress disorder is also common in children and young adults. Many children and youths have experienced repeated exposure in their lifetime. The rates of PTSD symptoms in patients vary depending on the main focus of the target population and the traumatic event that is being examined. The prevalence rates of trauma in children and adolescents are high in high conflict or war countries. It is estimated that people with PTSD are more likely to commit suicide than those without. Currently, Cognitive Behavioral therapy is the recommended intervention for PTSD treatment. Its mechanisms and techniques of treatment offer a different view on the treatment of the disorder (Shubina, 2015). CBT is a technique that primarily focuses on understanding, identifying, and changing the behavior and the thinking patterns of persons with PTSD. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy can be subdivided into behavioral techniques, cognitive approaches, and techniques based on Lang's emotional processing. This review seeks to "critically evaluate the utility of cognitive-behavioral therapy on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder."

Diagnoses of PTSD

It is somehow challenging to diagnose PTSD due to the variable onset of the symptoms. This is because patients are unable to understand or link between experienced trauma and their symptoms. Some patients may not disclose the event, or others may be affected by depression, drug abuse, or any other comorbidity. In some populations, symptoms may occur immediately after exposure, while others may delay for years. In general, people who have been exposed to traumatic exposure, depression, anxiety disorders, substance abuse have a high risk of PTSD (Hamblen & Barnett, 2016). For one to be given PTSD diagnoses, he or she must have been exposed to extreme stressors in which the response is fear, helplessness, or horror. In the first month after exposure to the stressor, the person may experience asymptomatic stress reactions.

In most cases, people do not have the right combination of symptoms required for a complete PTSD diagnosis. People with PTSD exhibit three (3) distinct forms of symptoms, i.e., avoidance of reminders, hyperarousal for over one month, and the re-experience of an even; this means that before one can be diagnosed with PTSD, symptoms must last for at least one month and must significantly interrupt the usual activities. Physicians are recommended to use empathic, direct, and non-judgmental questioning when taking the patient's history.

Risk Factors of PTSD

There exist a direct link between the epidemiology of PTSD and the epidemiology of trauma. The development of Post-traumatic stress disorder varies with a variety of factors such as the span, seriousness, and the proximity to have encountered injury or trauma or exposure to outrageous stressors. It is estimated that approximately 30% of patients of traumatic exposures develop PTSD symptoms, but the response of the exposure varies with the subjective experience that is associated with the disclosure (Zhang & Ntuli, 2017). Post-traumatic stress disorder may develop in all persons of all ages, but the trauma exposure varies with age. Generally, traumatic exposure is higher in women than men but differs in the forms of the traumatic events or outrageous stressors to which they are at risk. On many occasions, men have a significant probability of being victims of physical violence, while women have high chances of being exposed to sexual abuse. The differences in exposure to gender consequently affect the treatment to be considered.

Patients suffering from mental disorders have a high chance of developing Post-traumatic stress disorder. People who have previously been victims of extreme stressor have a significant likelihood of being victimized again on one occasion or another. Hamblen (2016), argues that children who may have been victims of traumatic events have a probability of re-experiencing the same in adulthood; this may hence accelerate the development of PTSD. It is also estimated that persons who abuse alcohol or other drugs have two (2) times the likelihood of experiencing traumatic events; hence they are at a high risk of developing PTSD. Genetic factors also have a significant probability of increasing the vulnerability to PTSD in case the person has or is exposed to an adequate stressor or threat. Persons with PTSD have a higher likelihood of performing suicide or making a suicide threat compared to them that have anxiety or mode disorders.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for PTSD

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy has been empirically validated as an efficacious intervention for Post-traumatic stress disorder treatment. This therapy primarily focuses on ways in which patients confront fear and how they develop anxiety management approaches. Cognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder helps in educating patients on cognitive – reframing strategies. Other forms of cognitive-behavioral therapy include; exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, and stress inoculation training, relaxation training, acceptance and commitment therapy, cognitive processing therapy, and dialectical behavior therapy. Cognitive-therapist understand PTSD as a phenomenon of multifactorial factors. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy ensures that PTSD patients stop thinking about the traumatic events, stop debating the event, and avoid actions and reminiscence associated with the traumatic event. CBT helps patients comprehend various procedures and how they impact their considerations, feelings, and behavior, enabling them to reassess their views regarding the disorder (LoSavio, 2017).

CBT uses a therapeutic intervention that is primarily centered on Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms, such as that of re-encountering the traumatic event and symptoms of excessive excitation. CBT uses the following in treating PTSD, i.e., thoughts, behavior and emotions, exposure, assumptions, identification of ideas and beliefs, and the alternative hypotheses creation. The process of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy takes 12 or more sessions in which every session takes approximately ninety minutes. The sessions begin with a detailed interview, which mainly focuses on the specific attention on details of nature and intrusive images and maintaining the problem factors. The therapist then educates the patient about the symptoms of the disorders, this according to the therapist helps the patient to recall the painful experiences and acts as a relaxation training.

After the patients have exhibited the capacity to endure the intensification of side effects, the patient is then taken through a progression of meetings in which the horrendous and repercussions of the exposure are envisioned and described. During this period, the therapist requests the patient to focus on the adverse effects until they subside. The therapist then gives the patient relaxation and reassurance exercises to permits the patient to progress through the remedial meetings confidently (Shubina, 2015). The patients are given homework assignments to practice while out of courses to enable the patient to confront the triggers of anxieties. Cognitive models for PTSD are the same in that they are trauma-focused and comprise of exposure and cognitive approaches. Ehlers and Clark developed a CBT model for PTSD, which focused on reducing interruptions and re-encountering of horrible experience, adjusting the exorbitant negative examinations, and eliminating dysfunctional cognitive and social methodologies in the treatment of PTSD. The model proposed a treatment model that incorporated a detailed assessment interview, education, thought –suppression experiment, in-vivo exposure, and imaginary techniques.

Exposure Therapy (ET)

These are a progression of series and approaches that are designed for the sole purpose of helping patients with PTSD to resist ideas and low-risk motivation that are avoided. Exposure treatment programs for PTSD incorporate imaginal exposure to the injury or triggers for exposure related to fear and avoidance (Abramowitz & Whiteside, 2019). A classical type of Exposure Treatment, namely Narrative Exposure Therapy (NET) developed by Neuner's research team, helps ensure that the needs of traumatized survivors of war, terror, and torture are met. ET varies with the degree of contact and intensity of the extreme exposure to the feared episode or object. Exposure therapy may similarly appear as imaginal exposure in which a patient imaginably revisits the feared episode of Vivo exposure that the patient tackles the traumatizing situation face to face. As mentioned, exposure therapy varies with the intensity of the feared object; hence the length of the exposure exercise might be short or long, based on how the patient confronts the feared situation.

The exposure therapy process ranges from nine (9) to twelve (12) singular sessions that take approximately one and a half hour that is rehearsed weekly or biweekly. ET involves four integral components of treatment, i.e., education, breathing retraining, imaginal exposure, and in-vivo exposure between meetings to factors related to the injury or trauma. In ET, the initial two (2) meetings are mainly used in collecting the background information, clarifying and educating the patients about the PTSD. In the third to the ninth or twelve sessions, the patient begins the imaginal exposure process. In exposure therapy, training sessions are always recorded; this acts a homework in which the patient is instructed and requested to listen daily. In the final course, the therapist asks the patient to analyze everything he or she has learned in the treatment and effectively discuss the progress (Kar, 2011). In a nutshell, exposure therapy gives the patient a new piece of evidence that helps him/her to deny the thoughts and believes of traumatic exposure and focus on the accumulation of newly acquired evidence that assists in weakening the catastrophic interpretations and ideas.

Stress Inoculation Training (SIT)

This is a form of CBT that involves instructing coping abilities to help oversee stress and tension. This preparation encompasses profound muscle relaxation, breathing exercises, stopping of thoughts, a guided self-dialogue, and role-playing. It is a psychotherapy method that is effective in helping patients prepare in advance on how to handle stressful events with minimal upsets. This approach works similarly to a vaccination that enables patients more impervious to the impacts of a particular disease. It is also similar to Relapse Prevention Methods that are used in addictions treatment. S...