The Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Abstract

provide a thorough review of current thinking about posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) / characterize PTSD as a reaction to an experience of intense terror associated with the loss of normal feelings of predictability, controllability, and invulnerability / feel that physiological hyperarousal is the key to the development of PTSD / this hyperarousal is associated with dissociation, and with the failure to integrate the traumatic experience into a meaningful autobiographical set of memories / [suggest that] PTSD is a biologically based disorder related to long term changes in neurochemical functioning that affect cognitive processing characterize current conceptualizations of the symptomatology of PTSD / outline principles of treatment / the primary tasks of treatment are the processing of the original overwhelming experience, controlling and mastering physiological stress reactions, and re-establishing the security of social relationships and interpersonal efficacy / conclude by saying that traumatic stress leaves indelible imprints on survivors (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)