What is post-traumatic stress disorder?
These are psychological sufferings that develop after a traumatic event, involving a vital risk: aggression, natural disaster, hostage-taking, sudden death of a loved one… Victims, witnesses, and loved ones can be affected. A parent who learns that their child has been sexually abused could thus suffer from this disorder.
How is PTSD diagnosed?
The patient must has had multiple symptoms for at least 4 weeks. First there is a reliving of the event. The person will have flashbacks, thoughts, images that keep coming back. If she has experienced an earthquake, for example, she will see her house collapsing again and again.
There is also an avoidance of anything related to the trauma. There is an alteration in mood, people have the impression of having changed, in a negative way. Finally, hyperreactivity is observed. The person has the feeling of being always on the alert, they startle frequently, they are never calm.
There is widespread distress, which has consequences on a daily basis. To get out of it, it is imperative to consult a general practitioner, a psychologist or a psychiatrist.
Are there factors that promote post-traumatic stress disorder?
Certain professions – military, police… – are more at risk, because they are more exposed than the rest of the population to traumatic events. In the general population, people who already had mental health problems before the traumatic event, frailty, are also more at risk. The severity of the event itself, the risk of death associated with it, also plays a role. Just like the support received after the trauma.
How is it treated?
The management is essentially psychotherapeutic, even if drugs should not be excluded.
Studies on the effectiveness of therapies recommend cognitive behavioral therapies (CBT), and EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing). Indeed, the thoughts, emotions and images acquired during the traumatic event are stored in memory and are hyperactivated in the brain. Result: the patient thinks he is still in danger and develops the symptoms seen above.
In CBT, the therapist will help his patient to modify this hyperactivation of the trauma by a mechanism of therapeutic exposure. This will allow the patient to learn new things, reduce their fears and put in place strategies for well-being. In EMDR, the therapist will help his patient modify this hyperactivation by using eye movement to deprogram the neural networks. TCC or EMDR, it takes an average of 10 to 15 sessions for the symptoms to lose intensity, and for the patient to regain his serenity.
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