TREATMENT FOR PTSD
Treatment for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Name Zoraida Seoane
Lecturer Crisis Intervention
Date 09/23/2020
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an ailment triggered by a physical or emotionally tragic event (Foa et al., 2020). The symptoms may include dreams, flashbacks, mental or physical distress cued by situations similar to the event (Acute Stress Disorder). Other symptoms caused by ASD may consist of insomnia, lack of concentration, poor social skills, or lack of appetite. For example, an accident survivor may avoid using vehicles, thus slowing down daily activities like going to work. Though both children and adults can experience PTSD, the most affected people may include post-war veterans, sexual assault victims, and accident survivors.
PTSD treatment comes in many forms like medication, Cognitive Therapy (CBT) and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. Out of all these, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) stands as the most effective treatment, in my opinion. CBT is the psycho-social therapy given to patients to battle the malicious thought process that distorts functionality (David et al., 2018). This method can not only be used for PTSD but also for a variety of mental disorders like depression and anxiety. We can further subdivide CBT into various types.
Firstly, Cognitive Processing Therapy is used to help the patient understand and reconceptualize the traumatic event to reduce ongoing negative effects. This method begins by educating the patient about the reasons behind this approach. The patient is then requested to re-manifest the event in detail through writing or verbal explanation. After this, the patient, with the doctor’s help, come up with modified beliefs regarding the event. This treatment method is only administered to emotionally stable patients as it uses a more head-on approach to resolve the situation.
Another form of CBT is Habit Reversal Training. HBT addresses the unwanted repetitive behaviors or habits developed from the traumatic experience. These may include twitchy neck or biting nails. In this case, patients go through awareness training where a patient tries to identify repetitive habits. The therapist then recommends behaviors that the patient can use to counter bad habits, known as Competing Response Training. The patient is also exposed to motivation, such as listing a set of goals to achieve or being around people who can encourage improvement (Salimi et al., 2016). Relaxation training is also used to reduce stress, which is seen as a major cause of unwanted repetitive behaviors.
Finally, Dialectical Behavioral therapy can be administered to PTSD patients. DBT is used to address patients with extreme emotional regulation and self-destructive behaviors. The first stage of DBT addresses emotional issues such as suicide, which may have dire physical harm. The second stage treats life skills that may have been damaged by trauma, such as socialization and low self-esteem. The last step builds relationships. For example, a victim of rape is taught how to accept men emotionally. DBT depends significantly on the patient’s ability to take the situation as it is and move on.
This is just the tip of the iceberg when dealing with CBT. This method gives patients multiple ways to deal with trauma, whether it is a head-on approach or a phased approach. This method is all rounded as it deals with self-damaging behaviors while building broken relationships with other people and particular circumstances. Other methods, such as medication, may have physiological side effects (Rizzo & Shilling, 2017). These are the reasons as to why I chose CBT as the most effective method to treat PTSD.
References
Foa, E. B., Keane, T. M., Friedman, M. J., & Cohen, J. A. (2020). Effective treatments for PTSD. Guilford Publications.
David, D., Cristea, I., & Hofmann, S. G. (2018). Why cognitive behavioral therapy is the current gold standard of psychotherapy. Frontiers in psychiatry, 9, 4.
Salimi, H., Sabzian, S., & Jozai, S. K. (2016). The effectiveness of habit reversal training on the nail-Biting Disorder. Quarterly Journal of Social Work, 4(4), 29-34.
Rizzo, A. S., & Shilling, R. (2017). Clinical virtual reality tools to advance the prevention, assessment, and treatment of PTSD. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 8(sup5), 1414560.
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