...While screening measures are invaluable when assessing for trauma, as they investigate symptoms, symptom severity, traumatic experiences, etc., it is also necessary to be aware of common symptoms, especially when working with a specific population (i.e., Vietnam veterans). Although Holloway and Ursano (1984) conducted this study to better understand the role of memory, as well as the importance of metaphors and social contextual factors in memory, the case studies presented were discussed in the current literature review because they described and clarified common symptoms within this population. The first case study featured an individual who served as a sniper during the Vietnam war, and subsequently experienced disability, secondary to dissociation, which presented itself in the form of dreams and intrusive thoughts (Holloway & Ursano, 1984). Specifically, individual dissociated and found himself playing the role of this sniper, similarly to his role in Vietnam (Holloway & Ursano, 1984). He expressed feeling an enormous amount of guilt as the result of these experiences....
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...Gradus, J. L., Gutner, C. A., Luciano, M. T., Shipherd, J. C., & Street, A. E. (2014, July 14). Deployment Stressors and Physical Health Among OEF/OIF Veterans: The Role of PTSD. Health Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/hea0000084 Nillni, Gradus, Gutner, Luciano, Shipherd, and Street are all professors at the Boston University School of Medicine, who created a study based the role of PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans. Their position was that exposure to traumatic stress and combat stress were directly associated with an increase in physical health symptoms. The participants of the study included 2,332 OIF Veterans with 1,201 of these veterans being female. The professors used a series of hierarchical linear regression models to examine the effects of deployment and PTSD symptoms on physical health symptoms. In the conclusion of all there research it was discovered that for both men and women, after accounting for PTSD symptoms, combat stress did not give any unique variance in symptoms. Another big conclusion was that harassment while deployed plays a major role in the diagnosis of PTSD in many veterans. The professors used the information gathered throughout their study to support the fact that harassment was as big of a factor in veterans with PTSD and the combat stresses or experience itself. Their conclusion that they drew is as stated, “This study extends the existing literature by demonstrating...
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...Traumatic Stress Disorder Sub Topics: Chronic PTSD in Vietnam Veterans PTSD in Iraq War Veterans SOURCE 1: What is PTSD? Retrieved on 13 Nov. 2011 http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/what-is-ptsd.asp UNDERSTANDING PTSD Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or that happens to you. During this type of event, you think that your life or others' lives are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening. Anyone who has gone through a life-threatening event can develop PTSD. These events can include: * Combat or military exposure * Child sexual or physical abuse * Terrorist attacks * Sexual or physical assault * Serious accidents, such as a car wreck. * Natural disasters, such as a fire, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake. After the event, you may feel scared, confused, or angry. If these feelings don't go away or they get worse, you may have PTSD. These symptoms may disrupt your life, making it hard to continue with your daily activities. How does PTSD develop? All people with PTSD have lived through a traumatic event that caused them to fear for their lives, see horrible things, and feel helpless. Strong emotions caused by the event create changes in the brain that may result in PTSD. Most people who go through a traumatic event have...
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...high risk individuals and groups. High risk families can be defined as those families with a higher than expected risk for developing a particular disease or injury in association to their lifestyle, environment, habits, or socio-economic conditions. Post active-duty war veterans are a group that is at high risk for developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which can lead to physical, psychological, and social problems. These problems not only affect the veteran but also strongly alter the health and lifestyle of the entire family. The objective of this paper is to present the health profile and behaviors of PTSD veterans, describe assessment models and theories that are applicable to the patient and family, and identify Healthy People 2020 objectives that relate to this high risk group. In addition, the paper will present nurse intervention strategies based on health promotion and prevention as well as the role of advanced practice nurses as case managers. Health Profile According to the Mayo Clinic (2012), PTSD “is a mental health condition that is triggered by a terrifying event” (p. 1). After experiencing severe trauma or a life-threatening event, many deployed war veterans develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress. Many feel as though their lives or the lives of others are in imminent danger in which they have no control. These feelings develop...
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...Stress Disorder (PTSD) refers to the psychiatric disorders that occurs after the victim experiences or witnesses a life-threatening event including the military combat, serious accidents or the sexual assault (Kawakami, 2014). Some survivors of the trauma return to their normal state after some time. However, some victims may exhibit some stress reactions that they cannot solve on their own, which may worsen with time. Such individuals may develop the Posttraumatic disorder. In many instances, the victims of the PTSD relieve their experience through nightmares and flashbacks, making them have sleepless nights and feel estranged. The increased severity of the PTSD symptoms impairs the victim’s daily life and experiences. Social stigma refers to the situation where the members of the society disapprove some people or a group based on some social characteristics held by the victims. The socially disconnected person suffers from the stigma because of such disapprovals. In today’s world, veterans suffer from social stigma when people scapegoat them for executing orders for the decisions they did not make. The society unjustly blames the veterans for executing some atrocities whereas they have the obligation to obey such order without questions (Lee, 2013). Upon their return, the society treats them as social pariahs and attributes them to the deaths inflicted on the innocent lives. People forget conveniently forget the hardships and the hell endured by the veterans for their physical...
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...to the Middle East show high levels of emotional distress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Both active duty and reserve component soldiers who have fought in the war (i.e. experienced combat) have been exposed to high levels of traumatic stress. As a consequence, many have gone on to develop a wide range of mental health problems such as PTSD. “According to researchers, PTSD is a long-term reaction to war-zone exposure that can last up to a few minutes, hours, several weeks, and for some a lifetime.” Common symptoms include: emotional numbing, anxiety, feelings of guilt, and depression. If the disorder turns chronic veterans may experience functional impairment (Friedman, M. J. et al., 1994, p. 265).” PTSD is one of the most prevalent mental health disorders from veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. In general, the younger veterans are the more likely they are to develop PTSD when deployed. Deployment related issues from veterans may have a devastating impact on their relationships back home. “Numerous research studies have linked PTSD to family relationship problems (Goff, Crow, Reisberg, &ump; Hamilton, 2006).” PTSD is likely to be “the” contributor to relationship problems that are not related to deployments. Spouses or partners of veterans who are diagnosed with PTSD are at greater risk of hostility and aggression in their relationship than spouses whose veterans are not diagnosed. To combat this direction and effective coping skills have been shown to improve...
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...& Costa, 1997: Terracciano & McCrae, 2006). Other psychologists such as humanistic and positive psychologists believe quite the opposite and contend that humans are essentially good with free will to make choices, change outcomes, and seek out opportunities to enhance their quality of life with the goal of self-actualizing, making personality a more fluid and less deterministic perspective with a focus on values, resiliency, and subjective well-being (Cloninger, 2013). Other researchers such as Freud, Adler, Horney, and Jung believe culture, society, and environment are profoundly important influences on personality (working in tandem with biological drives and urges) especially regarding early relationships with parents, gender roles, and structure of birth-order and its expectations (Cloninger, 2013). Still others like Dollard and Miller, Skinner, Bandura, and Staats embrace a behavioral approach to personality development based on observational learning, behavior repertoires, operant conditioning, behavior modification,...
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...sights and experiences that we were exposed to during our deployments. We are victims, suffering from wounds that can’t be seen, but by internal wounds that we struggle with on a daily basis. We will never be the same. Many veterans return from war and are unable to adapt to the life they once knew. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is one of the most widely recognized lasting effects of war in service members. PTSD is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened (Department of Veterans Affairs). Every day while patrolling roads in Iraq we had to be aware of our surroundings and not become complacent. Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were one of the most common threats we were exposed to. These bombs were hidden in the ground like landmines, unable to be seen with a naked eye, and could only be detected by using metal detectors, the eye in the sky, or being ran over. On several occasions my men and I were directly hit by an IED causing shrapnel to penetrate through our vehicle, causing wheels to be blown off the vehicle, causing a loss of armor, and instilling a fear that death is a reality. This is just one example of the many events that could cause PTSD in a service member. When a tour of duty is over, it is hard for a member of the military to leave the war overseas. The constant exposure to harmful threats makes it near impossible to forget....
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...Pharmacological Treatment of PTSD Karen Newkirk HHS 460 Research Methods in Health and Human Services (CGL1423A) Christian Funk June 23,2014 Post -Traumatic Stress Disorder is an anxiety disorder, characterized by a persistant feeling of tension and an avoidance of a traumatic event or events . These three symptoms anxiety , tension ,and avoidance are used as targets for pharmacological interventions. Pharmacological treatment is difficult by the fact that PTSD is often associated with other disorders such as depression, alcoholism , and substance abuse . It is also associated with marital ,occupational , financial and other health problems. Research suggests that SSRIs are the first line of treatment for this disorder . There have been a majority of empirical studies with SSRIs ,and although a variety of SSRIs are used ,only Zoloft and Paxil have been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of PTSD . PTSD was first brought to public attention in relation to war veterans ,but it can result from other traumatic events such as rape , torture ,kidnapping , held captive , car accidents , or even natural disasters such as torandoes , earthquakes ,or floods . There are many causes of PTSD ,but scientists are focusing on genes that play a role in creating fear memories . Understanding how fear memories are created may help or find new interventions for reducing...
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...Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Unethical Business Practices and their Influence on Veteran Unemployment Chase Jeffrey Engel Georgetown University Abstract Military veterans have consistently experienced high unemployment rates. Challenging veterans’ efforts in finding and maintaining employment is the issue of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Exacerbating this problem, is civilian employers’ utilization of deficient hiring and employment practices. In particular, employers have developed a sense of fear and uncertainty about PTSD. These perceptions often prove to be a reason why employers choose not to select veteran candidates for employment. Additionally, organizations fail to successfully acclimate and socialize new veteran employees (who do or may suffer from PTSD) into the organization’s culture. Such failures can lead veteran employees to quit their job. Together, the deficient hiring and employment practices displayed towards former service members have significant ethical implications that serve as the catalyst for high unemployment rates for the veteran population. To minimize these implications and to improve veteran employment opportunities, organizations’ human resources (HR) departments must develop and incorporate new approaches to hiring and employing veterans who do or may suffer from PTSD. Keywords: PTSD, invisible disability, human resources, implicit bias Post-Traumatic...
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...Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often associated with war veterans. These days, assuming symptoms of PTSD in soldiers returning from combat tours is almost stereotypical. In fact, in the 2012 American Psychological Association (APA) annual meeting, some argue to change PTSD to post-traumatic stress “injury” to be more accommodating to soldiers, and to resolve the issue of unreported PTSD-related symptoms within military ranks (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Military officials explained that many soldiers do not report their symptoms because of the fear of being viewed as weak (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). However, the incidence of PTSD can be as common among civilians as it is for those in the military. Barlow and Durand (2013) reported recent studies showing that those who are “raped, held captive, tortured, or kidnapped, or badly assaulted” are more at risk for developing PTSD than those who experienced military combat. While the reports conveying “zero” conditional risk of PTSD from exposure to military combat seem to need clarification, PTSD remains to be a debilitating condition for those who have the proclivity to develop the disorder. This paper will discuss the diagnostic criteria, etiology, effective treatment, and outcome research pertaining to PTSD. PTSD: A trauma and stressor-related disorder PTSD now belongs in the group of trauma and stressor-related disorders as published in the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual...
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...With more combat cases, psychological diseases have influenced soldiers adversely during war time and postwar period. Depression, as a mediating factor, worsens the experience of combat trauma and intensify the PTSD symptoms (Griffith 464). According to scholarly research, Veterans may suffer from both physical injury and psychological trauma during wartime. After returning from the warzone, they are likely to have painful memories about the war. Therefore, Trouble coping with experiences or losses can lead to depression (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs). According to Kearney, Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a worldwide problem that is associated with “major decrements” in life quality, and it has “comorbidity across the lifespan”...
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...and Afghanistan and the constraints the Department of Veterans Affairs faces in trying to meet the needs of these Soldiers. This paper uses data collected from government sources like the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Veterans Benefit Administration. The conclusions of the analysis are that: (a) The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) is already overwhelmed by the number of patients it currently sees and the addition of these new Veteran’s seeking care will put a severe strain on the resources that are currently available; (b) The Veterans Benefit Association (VBA) is in need of restructuring to be able to handle the influx on claims it is currently experiencing. As it stands now the current wait time is up to 90 days before a Veteran will receive their disability rating and that time can increase with these additional claims; and (c) Providing medical care and disability compensation benefits to the Soldiers returning from the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan can cost anywhere from $400 - $900 billion depending on the type of care required, how quickly they file their claims, and the growth rate of those benefits. The recommendations that need to be considered include: increasing the staff as well as the budget for Veterans Medical Centers especially those that specialize in mental health treatment; restructure the claims process and increase staffing to help speed the process to get Veterans claims to them more expeditiously. Cost/ Benefit Analysis...
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...What role does PTSD play in community and family violence? Is there sufficient evidence to support the premise that untreated PTSD increases the risk of someone committing violence within their family or community? I do not believe that violence is a direct symptom of PTSD, mainly because everyone is different and everyone reacts differently to situations. However, I do believe PTSD plays a big role in community and family violence. I feel more so than not it is before PTSD has been diagnosed. This was more than evident in our course reading material “The War At Home”. Justin had many domestic disputes with his wife that sometimes became physical. It also poured into his work life by not being able to hold a job due to different situations related to the PTSD. I believe this book was evidence enough to show that untreated PTSD increases the risk of a person committing violence within their family or community. Justin could have gone to jail many times for actions he committed prior to seeking help. I also found an article that states, the new study, published Oct. 1 in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, for the first time draws a direct correlation between combat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the anger it can cause and criminal misbehavior (Wood, 2012). Wood, D. (October 9, 2012). Combat Veterans With PTSD, Anger Issues More Likely To Commit Crimes: New Report. Retrieved from...
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...Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a disorder triggered by exposure to a highly traumatic event that results in a recurrent, involuntary, and intrusive memories of the event; avoidance of stimuli and situations associated with the event; negative changes in thoughts or moods or emotions; and a persistent state of heightened physical arousal (Hockenbury & Nolan, 2016, p. 546/547). Society has always been aware of PTSD, especially in soldiers who have recently returned from war. However, it was not until the 1980’s when PTSD was finally identified as a disorder with specific symptoms. In recent findings, studies showed that 20% of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom veterans,...
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