This volume brings together the leaders in the field of PTSD research to present an up-to-date summary and understanding of this complex disorder. All of our current knowledge and controversies concerning the diagnosis, epidemiology, course, pathophysiology and treatment are described in detail. The evidence for efficacy for each of the different forms of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to at-risk groups, including minorities, and coverage of PTSD throughout the world is reviewed as well. The authors present state-of-the-art findings in genetics, epigenetics, neurotransmitter function and brain imaging to provide the most current and comprehensive review of this burgeoning field.

This authored text-reference will be the first comprehensive text in the rapidly growing field of psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder.According to the NIMH, approximately 5.2 million American adults already suffer from post traumatic stress disorder. Caused by everything from combat experience to violent personal assaults to natural disasters and accidents, the incidence of PTSD has already reached epidemic proportions. The profound impact of psychological trauma and the need for proactive and scientifically-based approaches to timely prevention and evidence based treatment is unarguable and mental health programs are seeing a significant rise in the number of PTSD courses offered and services required. As a result, scholars, researchers, educators, clinicians, and trainees in the health care and human and social services need a concise and comprehensive source of authoritative information on psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress. This volume will offer a foundational understanding of the field as well cover key controversies, the influence of culture and gender, and describe state-of-the-art research and clinical methodologies in down-to-earth terms. Clinical case studies will be used liberally. - Concise but comprehensive coverage of biological, clinical and social issues surrounding PTSD - Thoroughly covers evidence-based treatments, enabling the reader to translate current research into effective practice - Exemplifies practical application through case studies

This is the first comprehensive reader in a new area of counselling. It brings together well-known authors on traumatic stress responses and good counselling practice, as well as new material specifically written in order to fill gaps in current published sources. The authors cover an extensive range of methods for helping people, including videotaping, brief group counselling, expressive art, and information on helping the helpers.

The nosological roots of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may be traced back to th~American Psychiatric Association's DSM-I entry of gross stress reaction, as published in 1952. Yet the origins of the current enthusi asm with regard to post-traumatic stress can be traced back to 1980, which marked the emergence of the term post-traumatic stress disorder in the DSM III. This reflected the American Psychiatric Association's acknowledgment of post-traumatic stress as a discrete, phenomenologically unique, and reli able psychopathological entity at a time in American history when such recognition had important social, political, and psychiatric implications. Clearly, prior to DSM-I the lack of a generally accepted terminology did little to augment the disabling effects that psychological traumatization could engender. Nor did the subsequent provision of an official diagnostic label alone render substantial ameliorative qualities. Nevertheless, the post Vietnam DSM-III recognition of PTSD did herald a dramatic increase in research and clinical discovery. The American Red Cross acknowledged the need to establish disaster mental health services, the American Psychological Association urged its members to form disaster mental health networks, and the Veterans Administration established a national study center for PTSD.

The experience of traumatic events is a near-universal, albeit unfortunate, part of the human experience. The Oxford Handbook of Traumatic Stress Disorders addresses the current landscape of research and clinical knowledge surrounding traumatic stress disorders.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric illness that can occur in anyone who has experienced a life-threatening or violent event. The trauma can be due to war, terrorism, torture, natural disasters, violence, or rape. In PTSD the brain areas that are likely to be affected are the hippocampus (memory), amygdala (fear association), the prefrontal cortex (cognitive processing), and the ascending reticular activating system (arousal). The chemical of interest is norepinephrine, which is released during a stressful event and is part of the fight-or-flight response meant to mobilize the body to action.The objective of this title is to outline the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder and provide treatment strategies for clinicians. The chapter material from this book has evolved from a seminar on PTSD held recently under the auspices of the VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston University Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. We propose a book that will focus on the epidemiology, neurobiology, MRI studies, animal models, arousal and sleep issues, clinical trials, and treatment strategies for clinicians. Treatment will cover such topics as guidelines for treating posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD and the use of mental health services, cognitive intervention therapy, and large scale clinical trials in PTSD. This collection will be a vital source of information to clinicians and neuroscientists.

A collection of the most important writings on understanding and treating PTSD Essential Papers on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder collects the most important writings on the comprehension and treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Editor Mardi J. Horowitz provides a concise and illuminating introductory essay on the evolution of our understanding of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and establishes the conceptual framework and terminology necessary to understand the disorder. The collected essays which follow provide a rich and comprehensive take on the complexity of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, illuminating such issues as the variety of individual and cultural responses, the roles of pre- and post-traumatic causative forces, and the fluctuating complexities of diagnostic categories. Divided into sections addressing the broad topics of diagnosis, etiology, and treatment, Essential Papers on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder combines classic essays with more challenging and controversial approaches. Contributors include Sigmund Freud, Erich Lindemann, Leo Eitinger, Carol C. Nadelson, Malkah T. Notman, Hannah Zackson, Janet Gornick, Bonnie L. Green, Mary C. Grace, Jacob D. Lindy, James L. Titchener, Joanne G. Lindy, Lenore C. Terr, Rosemarie Galante, Dario Foa, Edna B. Foa, Barbara Olasov Rothbaum, David S. Riggs, Tamara B. Murdock, James H. Shore, Ellie L. Tatum, William M. Vollmer, Roger K. Pittman, Scott P. Orr, Dennis F. Forgue, Bruce Altman, Jacob B. de Jong, Lawrence R. Herz, Judith Lewis Herman, Rachel Yehuda, Alexander McFarlane, Frank W. Putnam, Robert Jay Lifton, Eric Olson, Nancy Wilner, Nancy Kaltrider, William Alvarez, Michael R. Trimble, Epstein, Terence M. Keane, Rose T. Zinering, Juesta M. Caddell, John H. Krystal, Thomas R. Kosten, Steven Southwick, John W. Mason, Bruce D. Perry, Earl L. Giller, David Spiegel, Thurman Hunt, Harvey E. Dondershire, Bessel A. van der Kolk, Peter J. Lang, Robert S. Pynoos, Spencer Eth, Matthew J. Friedman, Francine Shapiro, John P. Wilson, Jacob D. Lindy, I. Lisa McCann, and Laurie Anne Pearlman.

PTSD is in no way an easy diagnosis for the patient, the provider, or the therapist. It is a diagnosis developed at the border of our capacity to handle extreme stress, a marker diagnosis denoting the limits of our capacity for functioning in the stress of this modern world. For both individuals and society, PTSD marks the limits of our available compassion and our capacity to protect ourselves from the dangers of the environment and other humans. PTSD is often a chronic disease, forming at a place where mind sometimes no longer equals the brain, a point at which individual patient requirements often trump theory and belief. There are treatments for PTSD that work, and many that do not. This book presents evidence, rather than theory, anecdote, or case report. Psychological approaches including prolonged exposure, imagery rehearsal therapy and EMDR have a greater than 75% positive short-term response when used to treat PTSD. Yet these treatments vary markedly and have different, even contradictory underlying theory and objectives for treatment. Medications, rarely indicated as primary therapy, can be used to treat symptoms and address comorbid PTSD diagnoses. Treatment of sleep apnea in the PTSD population produces a positive effect on symptoms and a reduction in morbidity and mortality across the span of life. Complementary treatments offer the many individuals chronically affected by PTSD assistance in coping with symptoms and opportunities to attempt to functionally integrate their experience of trauma.

Trauma and disaster throw lives into chaos and fill people with the fear of loss, injury, and death. Although most individuals experience only transitory posttraumatic symptoms, others experience the effects of the disaster long after the traumatic event when new experiences remind them of the past. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Acute and Long-Term Responses to Trauma and Disaster provides clinicians, researchers, and policy makers with an examination of current advances in research and treatment by recognized experts at the cutting edge of innovation. This timely book incorporates DSM-IV criteria and the new diagnostic category acute stress disorder, which emphasizes the breadth of posttraumatic stress symptoms and disorders and the importance of distinguishing between acute and long-term responses to traumatic events. Individual chapters go beyond PTSD to examine other posttraumatic disorders and responses, the mechanisms of transmission of posttraumatic stress, and its effects on behavior and health in natural and societal disasters and traumas, including war. This volume pays particular attention to the array of psychiatric responses to trauma, including PTSD and the unfolding of illness and recovery over time. Posttraumatic responses are considered across individual, group, family, and community perspectives and from the vantage point of developmental systems from childhood to older adult life.

The first systematic analysis of the rates, risk factors, consequences and global burden of trauma and PTSD across the globe.