DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD PART II

DSM-IV-TR FOR PTSD Cont.

CRITERION D:  HYPER-AROUSAL

Persistent symptoms of increasing arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least two of the following:

1.  Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2.  Irritability or outbursts of anger

3.  Difficulty concentrating

4.  Hyper-vigilance

5.  Exaggerated startle response

CRITERION E:  DURATION

Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month.

CRITERION F:  FUNCTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of function.

Specify if:

Acute:  if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic:  If duration of symptoms is three months or more

Specify if:

With or without delay onset:  Onset of symptoms at least six months after stressor.

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association. (200).  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR (Fourth ed.).  Washington D.C.:  American Psychiatric Association

DESTRESS FOR THE EMS TELECLASS INFORMATION FOR APRIL

Please join us this Wednesday morning, at 6 am Pacific time/9 am Eastern, April 29, 2009, for our Destress for the EMS (Emergency Medical Service) Teleclass. We will talk about how we can Destress by discussing our stressful habits that we have and turning them into successful practices.

Dial in Number 1-309-946-5100

Access code 205356#

Please be on time for class because there are limited number of lines. Although this class is free, long distance charges apply. If you miss this class, it will be available in our store within a few days for a small fee.

I am very excited about this class because stress in the EMS is very common and there is no reason anyone should not live with happiness, energy, and vitality. This is gonna be fun! I can't wait!

Just a reminder, the majority of Destress Yourself Products, in our store, will be 50 to 75% off for limited time. Enjoy!


Elizabeth

ACUTE STRESS DISORDER; TREATMENT

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the treatment that has met with the most success in combating ASD. It has two main components: First, it aims to change cognitions, patterns of thought surrounding the traumatic incident. Second, it tries to alter behaviors in anxiety-provoking situations.

Cognitive behavioral therapy not only ameliorates the symptoms of ASD, but also it seems to prevent people from developing post-traumatic stress disorder. The chance that a person diagnosed with acute stress disorder will develop PSTD is about 80 percent; the chance that they will develop PTSD after cognitive-behavioral therapy is only about 20 percent.

Psychological debriefing and anxiety management groups are two other types of therapy that have been examined for the treatment of ASD. Psychological debriefing involves an intense therapeutic invention immediately after the trauma, so that traumatized individuals can "talk it all out." In anxiety management groups, people share coping strategies and learn to combat stress together. However, both types of therapy have proven to be largely ineffectual for the treatment of ASD.

Sources:

• American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
• Anxiety and Its Disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (Guilford Press)
• Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
• American Journal of Psychiatry
• Journal of Anxiety Disorders
• Journal of Traumatic Stress
• Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
• War Psychiatry: Textbook of Military Medicine
• Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• National Institute of Mental Health
• National Center for PTSD
• Department of Health & Human Services

ACUTE STRESS DISORDER; DEFINITION

Acute stress disorder develops within one month after an individual experiences or sees an event involving a threat or actual death, serious injury, or physical violation to the individual or others, and responded to this event with strong feelings of fear, helplessness or horror. The diagnosis was established to identify those individuals who would eventually develop post-traumatic stress disorder. As far back as World War I this condition was referred to as "shell shock," in which there are similarities between reactions of soldiers who suffered concussions caused by exploding bombs or shells and those who suffered blows to their central nervous systems. Civilians may also suffer from it. More recently, ASD was brought to light as it became clear that for a short period, people might exhibit PTSD-like symptoms immediately after a trauma.

Trauma has both a medical and a psychiatric definition. Medically, trauma refers to a serious or critical bodily injury, wound or shock. This definition is often associated with trauma medicine practiced in emergency rooms and represents a popular view of the term. Psychiatrically, trauma has assumed a different meaning and refers to an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful or shocking, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.

Psychiatric trauma, or emotional harm, is essentially a normal response to an extreme event. It involves the creation of emotional memories about the distressful event that are stored deep within the brain. In general, it is believed that the more direct the exposure to the traumatic event, the higher the risk for emotional harm. Thus in a school shooting, for example, the student who is injured probably will be most severely affected emotionally; and the student who sees a classmate shot or killed is likely to be more emotionally affected than the student who was in another part of the school when the violence occurred. But even secondhand exposure to violence can be traumatic. For this reason, all children and adolescents exposed to violence or a disaster, even if only through graphic media reports, should be watched for signs of emotional distress.

Sources:

• American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
• Anxiety and Its Disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (Guilford Press)
• Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
• American Journal of Psychiatry
• Journal of Anxiety Disorders
• Journal of Traumatic Stress
• Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
• War Psychiatry: Textbook of Military Medicine
• Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
• National Institute of Mental Health
• National Center for PTSD
• Department of Health & Human Services

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD Part II

Criterion D: hyper-arousal

Persistent symptoms of increasing arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least two of the following:

1. Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2. Irritability or outbursts of anger

3. Difficulty concentrating

4. Hyper-vigilance

5. Exaggerated startle response

Criterion E: duration

Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month.

Criterion F: functional significance

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Specify if:

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic: if duration of symptoms is three months or more

Specify if:

With or Without delay onset: Onset of symptoms at least six months after the stressor

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR ( Fourth ed.). Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association

DREAMS

In the last post we talked about dreaming big and making it specific. Well, did you do it? Did you have any trouble? If you had trouble let us fix that right now. Get a pen and paper. Ready?

Let us begin the process of Destressing Yourself.

If I were a Magical Warrior Queen (I love the sound of that, sorry I tend to fantasize), I waved my magical wand over your head, you woke up the next morning, and your life was perfect, what would it look like?

Let me help a little more.
Where would you live?
Who would you live with?
What would you do for a living?
What would you do all day, every day?
What would you look like?
What kind of habits would you have?
What kind of habits would you eliminate?

Write the answers down! Let us create a miracle.

Don't just write general things like you would buy a house, be specific and write what the house looks like and where it is.

For each question above be specific.

Whether you want to dream big or small, whether you want to get rid of your anger or create happiness, whether you want to quit smoking or loose weight, whether you want to make money or be famous, you have it within you. You have the power to create your miracles. Decide what you want, today and let us begin the journey of destressing ourselves and making miracles.

We are setting goals so that we may move forward in life because if we are not moving forward we are moving backwards and that will cause stress. Let us set goals so that we have something to look forward to in life and so that we have something positive to focus on.

Your in the EMS and life may be easy or it may be hard, depending on where you are in life. Life tends to go in phases, easy sometimes and hard other times. Let us take responsibility for our lives and move towards a life we truly desire no matter where we are. We have the power.

Just a reminder, sign up for our free teleclass by signing up for our free weekly newsletter.

Have fun with this and keep it handy for the next post.

Don't forget to have fun and be playful, it is in your nature.

Elizabeth