Posttraumatic stress disorder
hidePosttraumatic stress disorder (abbreviated PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to one or more traumatic events that threatened or caused great physical harm.
It is a severe and ongoing emotional reaction to an extreme psychological trauma. This stressor may involve someone's actual death, a threat to the patient's or someone else's life, serious physical injury, an unwanted sexual act, or a threat to physical or psychological integrity, overwhelming psychological defenses.
In some cases it can also be from profound psychological and emotional trauma, apart from any actual physical harm. Often, however, incidents involving both things are found to be the cause.
PTSD is a more chronic and less frequent consequence of trauma than the normal acute stress response.
PTSD has also been recognized in the past as railway spine, stress syndrome, shell shock, battle fatigue, traumatic war neurosis, or post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Diagnostic symptoms include reexperience, such as flashbacks and nightmares; avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma; and increased arousal, such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger, and hypervigilance. Per definition, the symptoms last more than six months and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (e.g. problems with work and relationships).
For more information about Posttraumatic stress disorder, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with post traumatic stress disorder
'American Diet' v. Atkins Diet
Oct 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- If people can learn anything from rats, what to eat might be one of the most useful lessons. University of South Florida Professor David Diamond, in the Departments of Psychology, Molecular ...
Use of cannabinoids could help post-traumatic stress disorder patients
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Nov 04, 2009 |
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Use of cannabinoids (marijuana) could assist in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder patients. This is exposed in a recent study carried out at the Learning and Memory Lab in the University of Haifa's Department ...
Coming undone: How stress unravels the brain's structure
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 04, 2009 |
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The helpless behavior that is commonly linked to depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is preceded by stress-related losses of synapses—microscopic connections between brain cells—in the brain's hippocampal ...
Researchers unravel mystery behind long-lasting memories
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Aug 11, 2009 |
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A new study by researchers at Wake Forest University School of Medicine may reveal how long-lasting memories form in the brain.
Finding fear: Neuroscientists locate where it is stored in the brain
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Jul 07, 2009 |
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Fear is a powerful emotion and neuroscientists have for the first time located the neurons responsible for fear conditioning in the mammalian brain. Fear conditioning is a form of Pavlovian, or associative, ...
Birds in captivity lose hippocampal mass
Oct 12, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Being in captivity for just a few weeks can reduce the volume of the hippocampus by as much as 23 percent, according to a new Cornell study.
Forget it! A biochemical pathway for blocking your worst fears?
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Mar 24, 2009 |
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A receptor for glutamate, the most prominent neurotransmitter in the brain, plays a key role in the process of "unlearning," report researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Their findings, published in the ...
No Direct Link Between Panic Attacks, PTSD
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Apr 09, 2009 |
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New Geisinger-lead research dispels a recent notion in psychiatry that if a person experiences a panic attack during a traumatic event that they will likely suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the future.
Report warns of jury service 'trauma'
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 19, 2009 |
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A new report by psychologists at the University of Leicester warns of the dangers of jurors facing trauma because of their exposure to harrowing and gruesome evidence.
Mathematical model could help diagnose and treat stress disorders
Feb 19, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Over 20 million people in North America suffer chronic stress-related diseases. But two University of Alberta researchers may be on the fast track to treating these illnesses.
Research moves a step closer to possibility of brain scan-assisted diagnosis for PTSD
Apr 03, 2009 |
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Florence, Italy: Preliminary research examining the difference in brain activity between soldiers with post-traumatic stress disorder and those without it moves scientists a step closer to the possibility of being able one ...
Researchers use computational models to study fear
Medicine & Health / Neuroscience
Sep 30, 2009 |
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The brain is a complex system made of billions of neurons and thousands of connections that relate to every human feeling, including one of the strongest emotions, fear. Most neurological fear studies have been rooted in ...
Post-traumatic stress disorder: Psychological treatments may not prevent PTSD
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Jul 08, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
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Psychological interventions intended to prevent the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the early stages after a traumatic experience have not been shown to be effective, Cochrane Researchers have concluded. ...
Non-invasive technique blocks a conditioned fear in humans
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Dec 09, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
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Scientists have for the first time selectively blocked a conditioned fear memory in humans with a behavioral manipulation. Participants remained free of the fear memory for at least a year. The research builds on emerging ...
Ecstasy could help patients with post-traumatic stress disorder
Medicine & Health / Psychology & Psychiatry
Mar 09, 2009 |
5 / 5 (1) |
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Ecstasy may help suffers of post-traumatic stress learn to deal with their memories more effectively by encouraging a feeling of safety, according to an article in the Journal of Psychopharmacology published today by SAG ...
