Annotated Bibliography on Post-Traumatic Disorder (PSTD).
Berle, D., Hilbrink, D., Russell-Williams, C., Kiely, R., Hardaker, L., & Garwood, N. et al. (2018). Personal wellbeing in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): association with PTSD symptoms during and following treatment. BMC Psychology, 6(1). doi: 10.1186/s40359-018-0219-2.
According to this article, different treatment measures are being weighed regarding the extent to which they aid recovery in patients suffering from PSTD. The extent is aimed at observing the chances of improvement in the persons’ well-being, how they connect to the community, achieving their life desires, and their security.
Therefore, the articles focus on determining whether a persons’ general well-being will improve while under the treatment program. Secondly, it also looks into whether the core symptoms will change, such as anxiety related to PSTD and depression. Both the two are related to positive outcomes in PSTD affected individuals.
The method used for the study involved 124 participants who accomplished all the PSTD checklists for symptoms of depression, stress, and also anxiety. The symptoms are a scale matrix used to determine the levels of an individual’s well-being for the study. The results were obtained after four weeks of the program, “Trauma Focused CBT residential program (Berle et al., 2018).” Thereafter, more results were obtained at 3 months intervals for nine months, after the treatment program.
After the study, across the nine-month, there was a significant change and improvement of personal wellbeing. More indications obtained explain that the older age was independent with either the positive improvements or the symptoms of depression. It means that all the factors contributed independently towards positive recovery in patients with PSTD.
Finally, however much there was an improvement observed on the symptoms of PSTD, the magnitude was minute. The study, therefore, advocates for more insights and understanding for the optimization of treatment for PSTD symptoms to obtain more positive and higher magnitude results (Berle et al., 2018). The more studies conducted will, therefore, help to come out with better treatment methods or either brainstorm on the existing treatment options, so that the larger population of people facing PSTD symptoms, get a solution.
Bisson, J., Cosgrove, S., Lewis, C., & Roberts, N. (2015). Post-traumatic stress disorder. BMJ, 351, h6161. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h6161
PSTD has been classified under mental health disorders, which come about as a result of being exposed to extraordinary experiences in life, most of which are life-threatening while others are horrifying. People exposed to such instances present with symptoms of resilience to recover from the trauma they faced.
Therefore, this article provides a greater overview of understanding PSTD from a broader perspective. The authors explain that PSTD conditions can present after one traumatic experience, or after a prolonged and continuous traumatic exposure, such that include childhood sexual abuse. It is therefore almost insignificant to tell someone who is going to develop or is developing PSTD.
Patients who suffer from PSTD are highly at risk of developing poor physical health such as immunological disorders, cardio and respiratory abnormalities, and muscle wasting. Moreover, it is explained that the condition is associated with increased chances of committing suicide, economic burden, and psychiatric comorbidity. Approximately 3% of adults suffer PSTD symptoms at different life moments. Although, the lifetime prevalence is at about 1.1%-8.8% (Bisson, Cosgrove, Lewis & Roberts, 2015). However, the rate adversely increases depending on different conflicts, which goes up to about 50% for those surviving rape cases.
It is explained that PSTD presents with varying symptoms per individual, though some of them are common to almost all individuals presenting with PSTD. They include persisting recollections that are intrusive, a person also tends to avoid trauma-related stimuli, negative cognitions of mood, and for some cases, hyperarousal. However, there can be delayed instances of symptom presentation.
Therefore, diagnosis is possible as earlier exposure to trauma is easily diagnosed through the DSM-5 method, which is a manual that provides statistics and diagnoses of mental health disorders. However, the criteria are best for severe cases of PSTD (Bisson, Cosgrove, Lewis & Roberts, 2015). Other instances such as loss of a pet, learning of terminal illness diagnosis, and sometimes losing a family member, are not deemed as severe.
Finally, the article explains that PSTD can be prevented and treated. Prevention includes psychological management, drug interventions, and preventing exposure to considerable extents that cause trauma, which might include child abuse. The article is therefore interesting and important for more than a basic understanding of the PSTD.
Cordova, M., Riba, M., & Spiegel, D. (2017). Post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(4), 330-338. doi: 10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30014-7.
Another interesting and informative article is this one about PSTD and cancer. Cancer is a serious and life-threatening disease, which no one wishes to acquire, whether genetic or artificially. But goodness and thumbs up to advancing medical technology, today, cancer are treatable and many people can attest to have recovered from cancer. But the worrying issue the extent the cancer symptoms affected them despite physical health.
There is a higher chance that cancer diagnosis is a significant and potential trauma. Different studies however have found out the prevailing instances of “cancer-related post-traumatic stress disorder (Cordova, Riba & Spiegel, 2017).” Therefore, it is documented that, a small magnitude of patients and the families of cancer patients, suffer from PSTD as a result of the cancer diagnosis.
It is indicated that instances of distress, the reduced life quality of both the patients and their families, are capable of inducing trauma. Other determiners include, such as pre-existing mental conditions, a past exposure and history to trauma, and poor support from social groups. However, the article indicates that there is little and sparse literature explaining the treatment of PSTD related to a cancer diagnosis.
Although, the available literature on ‘cancer-related PSTD’ exclusively employs DSM-IV-TR criteria of diagnosis, which is the DSM-5. In explaining its important implications to managing and treating cancer-related distress and trauma (Cordova, Riba & Spiegel, 2017). However, applying different PSTD diagnosed on cancer patients is facing a lot of critiques regarding concepts used, methodology, and the importance of other differential means of diagnosis, which should also be considered.
Finally, assessing the psychological state of cancer patients should keenly evaluate pre-cancer diagnoses trauma, any history of psychiatric conditions if any, which will concurrently consider the existing conditions of the patient. Therefore, it should be approached with cautious and pre-informed evidence-based scientific information.
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. (2018). Posttraumatic stress disorder as a diagnostic entity – clinical perspectives. Controversies in Psychiatry, 20(3), 161-168. Doi: 10.31887/dcns.2018.20.3/carvajal.
This article on the other hand talks not only about PSTD but explains further its clinical perspectives. Since historical times, different pieces of literature that talk about PSTD relate are consequences and characteristics to mostly the presenting clinical complications which are named differently. However, after PSTD was included in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, also (DSM-111), it has raised a lot of controversies. It was included with other symptomatic presentations of traumatic instances, resilient behaviors, and hyperarousal.
Some of the controversies and critiques argue the existence of PSTD, as some of them relate it to a diagnostic clinical intervention. Therefore, this article must review PSTD from unending deeper roots. The article explains different works of literature on the clinical perspectives, historical factors, and nostalgic classifications develop under PSTD and its contributions to neuroscience which allow its full diagnosis and validity as a psychological reaction and trauma.
Different levels of distress and traumatic experiences present a PSTD clinical context as patients present with common instances of distress and anxiety that is approximately about 20% (Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 2018). From childhood to adulthood, at least each person has experienced a traumatic experience. Among recent aspects that have generated a lot of interest in understanding PSTD is The Vietnam War, and not to forget the 2001 Twin Towers and Pentagon Terrorist attacks.
The events that took place are thought to have led to a series of emotional distress to many subjects who were involved and are therefore presenting with PSTD symptoms. This makes PSTD a widely discussed issue in different platforms such as in media, and also because it causes a lot of societal and, financial, and economical burden.
PSTD, however, is conceptualized differently, an example is that the soldier registries were excluded and removed from the battlefield since they suffered persisting psychological issues (Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 2018). They have therefore been linked to tales of historians such as Shakespeare, who characterized the symptoms, which today are constituted to PSTD.
Finally, the article further explains the different events of PSTD such as child abuse, the presenting symptoms, just as seen in other articles and the existing network models used to assess PSTD. The research domain, therefore, is a significant contributing criterion towards the future of PSTD.
Ghaffarzadegan, N., Ebrahimvandi, A., & Jalali, M. (2016). A Dynamic Model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Military Personnel and Veterans. PLOS ONE, 11(10), e0161405. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161405.
According to the authors, PSTD is a leading mental health issue of public health concern, which is high in prevalence as there exists little to no policies that mitigate the effects of the issue. The article, therefore, explains dynamic models for military people suffering from PSTD. It is therefore important that PSTD in military people and veterans be dealt with to avoid the severity of the conditions.
The authors came to a conclusive model to deal with PSTD after going through a series of questions such as the existing population trends in militaries and veterans suffering from PSTD and the policies that can help in mitigating the resenting symptoms. “A system dynamics simulation mode l(Ghaffarzadegan, Ebrahimvandi & Jalali, 2016)” was created, that focused on the population of military people and veterans suffering from PSTD.
The model, therefore, uses a “system of systems” that is inclusive of the military people and veterans (Ghaffarzadegan, Ebrahimvandi & Jalali, 2016). This is the interesting novel factor of this project since most implemented military projects and policies also revolve around and influence the veterans and their department of affairs.
Validation of the model used replicated data from the historical period to help in finding out the prevalence of PSTD in the targeted population. The model is also employed in the health policy sector for analysis of the prevailing policies. The result of the study estimated that the prevalence of PSTD in the targeted population is highly increasing. But the models put a promise to decrease the percentage if used appropriately.
Finally, the models suggest that, in the war periods, it is important that resilient policies are put across to decrease the occurrence of PSTD for the soldiers at war. And for the after-war periods, health policies should be mitigated, such as screening and treating different accidents, although they have limited outcomes (Ghaffarzadegan, Ebrahimvandi & Jalali, 2016).it is therefore important to revolutionize the whole health policy interventions, for the mitigation of psychological consequences a result of the war.
Hu, J., Feng, B., Zhu, Y., Wang, W., Xie, J., & Zheng, X. (2017). Gender Differences in PTSD: Susceptibility and Resilience. Gender Differences in Different Contexts. Doi: 10.5772/65287.
For this article, the authors come with a different idea as they state PSTD as “an anxiety disorder (Hu et al., 2017),” estimated after individuals’ exposure to traumatic episodes, rather than a mental disorder as seen in other articles. The article looks into PSTD susceptibility and its resilience as observed in men and women. General, it states that the population of women diagnosed with PSTD is twice that of men population. Therefore, more sight is put into factors that create the susceptibility and resilience differences of PSTD in men and women.
According to this article, understanding susceptibility and the resilience of different genders for PSTD will provide more insight for gender-based risk factors, and mechanisms of PSTD development, which in turn will help in finding a long-term solution to deal with and eradicate PSTD. There is existing evidence that showed there is a gender difference in PDTD prevalence, such forms the basis of this article review.
Other than women being highly prevalent in PSTD, they also experience an increased long duration of traumatic symptoms than men. However, the estimation decreases with age and because less when they are adulthood (Hu et al., 2017). However, men are more likely to suffer the severity of PSTD than women, despite women being more susceptible.
On the other hand, different kinds of literature state that, girls are more likely to develop disorders caused by anxiety at an early age, unlike boys. Since they are likely to make more connections early in life than boys. It is therefore clear that gender difference is there for both anxiety disorders and the related symptoms. Finally, the difference in biological clocks and symptoms for both males and females is also a reason for the difference in gender susceptibility.
Kessler, R., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Benjet, C., Bromet, E., & Cardoso, G. et al. (2017). Trauma and PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(sup5), 1353383. Doi: 10.1080/20008198.2017.1353383.
The World Health Organization is important health defining sector of the world that understands the seriousness of PSTD. Therefore, this article takes a look and reviews the surveys and statistics provided by WHO, in association with PSTD type of trauma.
It is thought that the onset of severe PSTD differs significantly according to the type of trauma. Therefore, most epidemiology surveys find it difficult to assess PSTD the condition as they mostly look into assessing long-term traumatic events for people who present with symptoms at their worst.
Therefore, WHM carries out its PSTD survey in 24 countries with an estimated n=68, 894 (Kessler et al., 2017). 29 traumatic life events are taken into considerations and assessed for each respondent for the occurrence of PSTD. Two key factors are observed, one trauma which is weighed heavily are, and life-threatening and another light and easy to carry over the trauma. In the method of study, PSTD onset is evaluated through WHO study criteria, “WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (Kessler et al., 2017).”
According to the results obtained, a substantial onset of trauma was seen between the different traumas assessed, hence induced PSTD. However, the persistence was limited for one event of trauma, unlike traumas which resulted from interpersonal violence.
The types of trauma which showed higher PSTD burden include rape, sexual assault, stalking, and loss of loved ones in that order. For the broader category, the violence of intimate and sexual partners shows the highest PSTD burden. Therefore, according to this article, exposure to trauma is common in the whole world (Kessler et al., 2017). However, its distribution is unequal regarding the different types of trauma and susceptibility to PSTD risk factors. Finally, most of the PSTD cases show after one moth exposure to traumatic events.
Lancaster, C., Teeters, J., Gros, D., & Back, S. (2016). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Overview of Evidence-Based Assessment and Treatment. Journal of Clinical Medicine, 5(11), 105. Doi: 10.3390/jcm5110105
As discussed in the other articles, Lancaster, Teeters, Gros & Back, 2016), provide an “an overview of evidence-based assessment and treatment of PSTD (Lancaster, Teeters, Gros & Back, 2016).” Therefore, they claim that PSTD chronic and a psychological detrimental disorder, as a result of exposure to traumatic events. Therefore, this article provides a review of different kinds of literature on the epidemiology, and PSTD assessment and treatment.
According to epidemiology, the DSM criteria states that PSTD occurs as a result of exposure to potential causes of trauma. However, potential events must be life-threatening, such as death, sexual assault, and violence. However, not all traumatic events lead to PSTD but the onset of trauma can dissolve within shorter periods.
Assessment of PSTD is a critical component for effectively treating and managing PSTD. Therefore, it primarily aims at the detection of exposure to trauma, evaluating it through the DSM procedure, then finally to further assess the severity of the symptoms for treating the presenting symptoms. The procedure however can include a series of steps that range from screening the non-specific symptoms to intensive diagnosis of steps that involve interviews, and questionnaire symptoms (Lancaster, Teeters, Gros & Back, 2016). The data gathered therefore is regarded as valuable to start and monitoring the whole treatment process of PSTD.
Today, the medical industry employs different treatment protocols based on approved scientific research evidence. Therefore, this article proofs that treatment of PSTD is not an exclusion. This means that different pharmacological approaches are quite appropriate. Diverse experimental studies have proved that psychological and biological mitigation when delivered appropriately aid in reducing the symptoms of PSTD. Moreover, they also prevent further development of PSTD. Finally, for most of the trials conducted clinically, show that both pharmacological factors and psychological interventions are important for managing PSTD.
Ng, L., Stevenson, A., Kalapurakkel, S., Hanlon, C., Seedat, S., & Harerimana, B. et al. (2020). National and regional prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS Medicine, 17(5), e1003090. Doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003090.
This study was piloted to focus the sub-Saharan regions of Africa since, most of the people living under these areas are highly exposed to traumatic events, and therefore, they are at a high risk of developing PTSD. However, the scarcity of population-level based representatives is a barrier to accessing chances of STD in the sub-Saharan populations. The study, therefore, opted to study the prevalence of PSTD from national surveys presenting regional data.
The search methodology was conducted from different source platforms including PubMed and PTSDpubs for information of recent years. Studies revolved around peer-reviewed journals through “probabilistic sapling methods and systematic PSTD assessments (Ng et al., 2020).” The basic outcomes of the study were specific estimates of the PSTD prevalence in all the study sources. And most especially, for the subgroups targeted for study.
The study however had some limitations in that, there were some exclusions of differed sub-types which include, studies published inter languages rather than in English, and Portuguese. Other exclusions were studies aimed at specific target groups, and those that involved continuous assessment studies on measuring symptoms of PSTD, and finally, those that were non-peer-reviewed studies (Ng et al., 2020).
Finally, the study plotted that, symptoms likely to be associated with PSTD were very common in SSA. Most regions affected have populations expose to extreme cases of armed conflict. However, information was only obtained in 10 SSA countries with important 6 studies (Ng et al., 2020). An overview of the study, therefore, finalized that, one of the major public health concerns in these countries is PSTD, whose reliability ad validity assessment was found in all populations of interest. However, the most devastating fact according to this study to the PSTD problem in SSA, the existing problem gaps remain a large problem.
Sareen, J. (2014). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults: Impact, Comorbidity, Risk Factors, and Treatment. The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 59(9), 460-467. Doi: 10.1177/070674371405900902.
This article talks about adult-PTSD regarding its impact on adults, comorbidity, available risk factors, and evidence-based treatments. According to this article, it is noted that there has been a significant increase in PTSD studies (Sareen, 2014). The increase in studies has been aggravated by the various contexts if public interests such as the Afghanistan war and terrorism attacks, which increase factors that bring about PTSD in people affected.
The paper, therefore, discusses advances that are important and critical for PTSD, since it provides a review of the diagnosis of PTSD evolution as evident in DSM, and how PTSD impacts the community, risk factors associated with developing PTSD, and together with how it is assessed and treated. The paper also provides evident clinical implications and critical controversies regarding PTSD. Therefore, to starts with, there is a reason why PTSD is defined and categorized in the DSM. It is because it was initially listed and diagnosed in DSM’s third edition.
However, there exist limited changes regarding PTSD in the third and initial edition dated back to 1980, although, there exists lots of literature regarding its placement in the third edition and now, more of which raises different controversies on the present fifth edition (Sareen, 2014). This is because, it has been pulled down from the chapter of Anxiety-related disorders, and moved to another chapter of “trauma-and stress related disorders (Sareen, 2014).”
The article moreover, states that PTSD comorbidity is high regarding other mental health issues different from traumatic exposure. The condition, therefore, overlaps with other symptoms of mental disorders such as resilience and hyperarousal. Finally, the paper puts down more insight into the greater dependent burden PTSD puts in the society, such that more mitigations should be put across to curb the whole situation.
Watkins, L., Sprang, K., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2018). Treating PTSD: A Review of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Interventions. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 12(258). Doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00258.
The whole article is focused on treating PTSD. Despite the presence of various ways of managing PTSD, there seems to be more light and significance in Psychotherapy intervention. Therefore, for this article, a review summary of the evidence-based intervention can be considered. The primary aim of this study article is the fact that PTSD is a detrimental health issue that comes about after exposure to traumatic life events.
There are existing and evident guidelines provided by “The American Psychological Association (APA) (Watkins, Sprang & Rothbaum, 2018),” for treating PTSD. Therefore, this article provides a review of methodologies used for setting each guideline, and the psychological therapies which it recommends, for treating adults with PTSD. According to this study, PTSD, diagnoses have undergone various changes since it was included in the DSM-111. Most guidelines practiced are according to the fourth, rather than the third edition. Although, there are considerable changes observed in the 5th edition and are also quite important.
However, according to the current diagnostic criteria, more insight is given to exposure events, that are qualify to be regarded as traumatic events. Therefore, there are various guidelines out of all the ones provided by the APA guidelines, strongly preferred for implications. Prolonged exposure is an example of treatment recommended, as it considers “emotional processing theory (Watkins, Sprang & Rothbaum, 2018).” It, therefore, suggests that memory traps fear, as it traps failed stimuli response.
Other options include, processing of cognitive therapy, and CBT: which is based on two different models, cognitive and behavioral (Watkins, Sprang & Rothbaum, 2018). However, all these methods are focused on the traumatic events that stimulated PTSD. Therefore, dropouts and different side effects are a point of concern, as it interferes with the whole treatment process. Finally, it is important to also watch out for the future implications of trauma-based treatments since they might result in a barrier in the treatment guidelines.
References.
Berle, D., Hilbrink, D., Russell-Williams, C., Kiely, R., Hardaker, L., & Garwood, N. et al. (2018). Personal wellbeing in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD): association with PTSD symptoms during and following treatment. BMC Psychology, 6(1). doi: 10.1186/s40359-018-0219-2. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-018-0219-2
Bisson, J., Cosgrove, S., Lewis, C., & Roberts, N. (2015). Post-traumatic stress disorder. BMJ, 351, h6161. doi: 10.1136/bmj.h6161. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4663500/
Cordova, M., Riba, M., & Spiegel, D. (2017). Post-traumatic stress disorder and cancer. The Lancet Psychiatry, 4(4), 330-338. doi: 10.1016/s2215-0366(17)30014-7. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S2215036617300147
Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience. (2018). Posttraumatic stress disorder as a diagnostic entity – clinical perspectives. Controversies in Psychiatry, 20(3), 161-168. Doi: 10.31887/dcns.2018.20.3/carvajal. https://europepmc.org/article/med/30581285
Ghaffarzadegan, N., Ebrahimvandi, A., & Jalali, M. (2016). A Dynamic Model of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder for Military Personnel and Veterans. PLOS ONE, 11(10), e0161405. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0161405. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0161405
Hu, J., Feng, B., Zhu, Y., Wang, W., Xie, J., & Zheng, X. (2017). Gender Differences in PTSD: Susceptibility and Resilience. Gender Differences In Different Contexts. doi: 10.5772/65287. https://www.intechopen.com/books/gender-differences-in-different-contexts/gender-differences-in-ptsd-susceptibility-and-resilience
Kessler, R., Aguilar-Gaxiola, S., Alonso, J., Benjet, C., Bromet, E., & Cardoso, G. et al. (2017). Trauma and PTSD in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys. European Journal Of Psychotraumatology, 8(sup5), 1353383. doi: 10.1080/20008198.2017.1353383. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/20008198.2017.1353383
Lancaster, C., Teeters, J., Gros, D., & Back, S. (2016). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Overview of Evidence-Based Assessment and Treatment. Journal Of Clinical Medicine, 5(11), 105. doi: 10.3390/jcm5110105. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5126802/
Ng, L., Stevenson, A., Kalapurakkel, S., Hanlon, C., Seedat, S., & Harerimana, B. et al. (2020). National and regional prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder in sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PLOS Medicine, 17(5), e1003090. doi: 10.1371/journal.pmed.1003090. https://journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article?id=10.1371/journal.pmed.1003090
Sareen, J. (2014). Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults: Impact, Comorbidity, Risk Factors, and Treatment. The Canadian Journal Of Psychiatry, 59(9), 460-467. doi: 10.1177/070674371405900902. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4168808/
Watkins, L., Sprang, K., & Rothbaum, B. O. (2018). Treating PTSD: A Review of Evidence-Based Psychotherapy Interventions. Frontiers In Behavioral Neuroscience, 12(258). doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00258. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00258.