PTSD

Cohen Veterans Bioscience's AMP IT UP (Alliance for Modeling PTSD, Innovative Technologies, and Uniform Practices) Preclinical Program is pleased to announce the posting of the following RFA: Translational Preclinical Animal Model Systems of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. The purpose of this RFA is to further validate, characterize, and develop existing and novel animal models systems of PTSD that will be useful for screening novel therapeutics and/or elucidating mechanisms of disease.

Please click on the link below to find complete details for the RFA itself, the submission process, and our application portal. This opportunity is open to all and we invite you to forward the link to friends, colleagues, and other list serves.

AMP IT UP RFA: http://www.cohenveteransbioscience.org/RFA-PTSD-0002/

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Cohen Veterans Bioscience is the only 501(c)3 non-profit research organization with a singular focus on PTSD and TBI research. We are dedicated to fast-tracking the development of diagnostic tests and personalized therapeutics for the millions of veterans and civilians who suffer the devastating effects of trauma on the brain.
More information is available at www.cohenveteransbioscience.org.

Vanuit het referentie kader van de IT wordt beschreven hoe Narratieve Exposure Therapie kan worden ingepast in de Integratieve Bewegingstherapie.  Aan de hand  van de behandeling van cliënte met complex trauma door incest wordt zichtbaar gemaakt hoe deze integratie van methodieken in praktijk kan worden gebracht. Door ROM metingen wordt zichtbaar gemaakt dat deze integratie effectief is geweest.

Whether the result of violence, war, or disaster, the intrusive memories that haunt people with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cannot always be healed through psychotherapy or current medications. Now research on the biological basis of memory offers the hope of new drug treatments that may be able to lessen the disabling fear associated with traumatic memories and perhaps even fundamentally alter them. Neuroscientists Jacek Dębiec, M.D., Ph.D., and Margaret Altemus, M.D., argue that this possibility raises profound ethical and philosophical questions that must be examined even as researchers work to relieve the suffering of PTSD.

In 2014, clinical trials were conducted in the Tampa Bay area of Florida to investigate the effects of ultra-low power pulsed electrical EEG biofeedback for the treatment of symptoms related to repetitive traumatic brain injury (rTBI) in former professional football players. The neurofeed¬back approach chosen was passive neuromodulation of the EEG signal. Pretreatment and post treatment subjective and objective mea¬surements were taken, with follow up measurements at 3 months, 1 year and 2 years to evaluate the long-term effects of the treatment. Testing instruments were QEEG, Rivermead Concussion Questionnaire, ImPACT Concussion Test, Sway Balance, and King-Devick Test.  Each player received 20 sessions of the defined HPN protocol. Five of five subjects who completed the entire treatment protocol improved on all measures except the Impact Test. All pre-test QEEGs re¬vealed statistically significant deviations from a normative data base on measures of Absolute Power, Amplitude Asymmetries, Coherence, and Phase. Post testing indicated remarkable normalization of the QEEG. The results were maintained at three-moth and at one year follow up. After two years, follow up testing indicated a slight regression in three players.

The practitioners of village stability operations operate nearly entirely in the spaces of communities damaged by combinations of traumatizing violence, loss, displacement, starvation, death and dismemberment. Their organization, equipping and training is focused on the most apparent physical security and developmental needs by those who fund and support their deployments and to a lesser extent on reparation of political dialogue as part of restorative justice and the reparative process. The psychological and sociological damage that these practitioners encounter however, often leads to frustration, overextension of personnel and resources and eventual failure. This paper explores the existence, nature and depth of psychological and sociological damage to communities traumatized by violent conflict. The purpose of this research is to establish a baseline of psychosocial-cultural intelligence on conflict societies that can be used to plan, prepare and execute peace operations and humanitarian missions. This psychosocial-cultural intelligence or understanding of traumatized communities provides peace operations and humanitarian missions with analysis and method to engage and influence traumatized communities to the point that they are able to provide for their self-sustainment without participation in communal violence. By exposing the pathology of sociological trauma at the family, village and tribal levels of structure, we can begin to unwind and resolve intractable conflicts in failing and failed societies despite limited time and resources of peace operations donors and practitioners.

Contents
The challenge of stabilizing villages and tribes in conflict ........................................................................... 3
Trauma and the family’s sociological structure ............................................................................................ 6
Village stability, trauma and the sociocentric family.................................................................................. 10
Internal identities and external locus of control in sociocentric families ............................................... 11
Communication and meaning in the sociocentric family ........................................................................ 14
The emotional logic of violence, shame, and trauma.................................................................................. 16
The rage of shame in sociocentric community ........................................................................................ 17
Psychological pathways to violence & suicidal terrorism ...................................................................... 21
Connecting failed states to traumatized communities ................................................................................. 22
Intractable cultural conflict: generational transmission of trauma .............................................................. 24
Crossing the trauma barrier - reestablishing meaning in traumatized communities ................................... 27
Relieving sociological trauma and rebuilding society ................................................................................ 31
Conclusion .................................................................................................................................................. 33
Bibliography ............................................................................................................................................... 35

Critical incidents often result in amplified social solidarity among the members of a traumatized community. Some argue this solidarity accelerates recovery and supportive social environments decrease the likelihood of PTSD and other health problems after traumatic events. However, little research investigates if social solidarity influences wellbeing independent from the social support that accompanies heightened solidarity. That is, does feeling attached to a group protect one from negative events even if social support ...

The early contributions of childhood trauma (emotional, physical, sexual, and general) have been hypothesized to play a significant role in the development of anxiety disorders, such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and social anxiety disorder (SAD). The aim of this study was to assess childhood trauma differences between PTSD and SAD patients and healthy controls, as measured by the Early Trauma Inventory. We examined individuals (N = 109) with SAD with moderate/severe early developmental trauma (EDT) (n = 32), individuals with SAD with low/no EDT (n = 29), individuals with PTSD with EDT (n = 17), and healthy controls (n = 31). The mean age was 34 years (SD = 11). Subjects were screened with the Mini-International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale (LSAS), Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS), and Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ). Analysis of variance was performed to assess group differences. Correlations were calculated between childh...

A 39-year-old television reporter, Karen Davis, saw a psychiatrist at her network employee assistance program a few weeks after witnessing the execution of a murderer. For several years she had been following the story of the inmate as he approached execution. The execution itself was remarkably protracted and gruesome; along with colleagues, she maintained a deathwatch for several hours while various last-minute reprieves were gained and then set aside by judicial bodies. At one point the inmate was actually strapped into the chair when a phone call from a federal judge, literally at the last minute, reprieved him, and the inmate was removed from the gas chamber alive. When the execution finally occurred, Karen and her colleagues watched from a distance of about 10 feet through the windows of the gas chamber. The inmate's eyes rolled back in his head, and he began to convulse involuntarily, eventually gasping and drooling as his body was racked by convulsions. After approximately 5 minutes, his body was still, and he was declared dead by prison authorities. Karen told the psychiatrists, "Once you see someone die, you don't forget what it looks like." She felt that her professional role as an objective recorder was helpful to her initially in that it separated her from her emotional response. She recalled, for example, the sensation of her mouth going dry just at the moment of execution, but this was unaccompanied by any emotional response. A feeling of detachment which she described as "surreal and macabre," persisted for some days after the event. For a week after the execution, she continued to be detached from her feelings, and was "in a daze and not like my usual self." For the last few weeks, since the execution, she has felt unexcited about her work. She was surprised, for example, at her unwillingness to cover a riot that occurred shortly after the execution, a story about which she would normally have been very enthusiastic. Moreover, she described being irritable with angry outbursts at her husband, that prompted him to suggest that they see a marriage counselor. Karen has had trouble staying asleep and often has nightmares. She says that she thinks of the event at least daily, having vivid "snapshot" images of the moment of execution.

In dit hoofdstuk heb ik kort uitgelegd wat autobiografisch geheugen is en laten zien dat het niet alleen bestaat uit levendige herinneringen van belangrijke gebeurtenissen maar dat het ook herinneringen aan alledaagse gebeurtenissen en autobiografische feiten bevat. Ik tekende hierbij aan dat herinneringen niet stabiele entiteiten zijn, maar dat ze iedere keer dat ze worden opgeroepen anders zijn door factoren, zoals de tijd tussen het plaatsvinden en het ophalen van de gebeurtenis, de wijze waarop de gebeurtenis wordt opgehaald, de omstandigheden waarin de gebeurtenis wordt gehaald, en retroactieve interferentie. Daarna heb ik negen methodes geintroduceerd waarmee autobiografische herinneringen kunnen worden verzameld. Vervolgens heb ik de verdeling van het autobiografische geheugen besproken en hoe verschijnselen in de verdeling verklaard kunnen worden met culturele levensscenario’s. Tenslotte heb ik de rol van autobiografisch geheugen en levensverhalen in PTSS besproken en laten zien dat de fenomenologie van onvrijwillige herinneringen aan traumatische ervaringen bij mensen met PTSS verklaard kan worden door dezelfde drie mechanismen die de fenomenologie van herinneringen aan niet-traumatische ervaringen verklaren.

This essay examines the developmental theories of Jean Piaget and Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Specifically, it looks at the similarities both theorist share which I suggest is on account of a shared metaphysical assumption brought out most clearly in the work of G.W.F. Hegel. I begin by presenting both theories separately and in their own right. Next I show their relationship, and presuppositional dedication, to the work of Hegel. Finally I suggest that these phenomenological theories of mental development help to contextualize the results of physical trauma and PTSD. Only by an analysis of human development as occurring through the incarnate mind phenomenologically can we come to understand how trauma works to alter the psychological state of the human being.

The Jungian analyst Ann Shulgin, wife of the chemist Sasha Shulgin, discoverer of the psychoactive qualities of MDMA, talks of her psychotherapeutic practice of using MDMA to facilitate the first step of C.G. Jung individuation process, the meeting with the Shadow.

Special issue of "Culture Unbound". Through an introduction and six original articles, the issue investigates a variety of cultural and scientific discourses and practices that in different ways are related to neuroscience and the brain.

The special issue was edited by guest editors Peter Bengtsen and Kristofer Hansson.

[AMAZON LINK BELOW TO BOOK ITSELF
-- TOC and book summary in downloadable .pdf] 
According to the poet Elias Canetti, "All the things one has forgotten / scream for help in dreams." To the ancient Egyptians they were prophecies, and in world folklore they have often marked visitations from the dead. For Freud they were expressions of "wish fulfillment," and for Jung, symbolic representations of mythical archetypes. Although there is still much disagreement about the significance and function of dreams, they seem to serve as a barometer of current mind and body states.

In this volume, Deirdre Barrett brings together the study of dreams and the psychology of trauma. She has called on a distinguished group of psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers--among them Rosalind Cartwright, Robert J. Lifton, and Oliver Sacks--to consider how trauma shapes dreaming and what the dreaming mind might reveal about trauma. The book focuses on catastrophic events, such as combat, political torture, natural disasters, and rape. The lasting effects of childhood trauma, such as sexual abuse or severe burns, on personality formation, the nature of memories of early trauma, and the development of defenses related to amnesia and dissociation are all considered. The book also takes up trauma and adult dreams, including Vietnam veterans and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Holocaust survivors and perpetrators, rape victims, and firestorm survivors. Finally, this volume concludes with a look at the potential "traumas of normal life," such as divorce, bereavement, and life-threatening illness, and the role of dreams in working through normal grief and loss.

Taken together, these diverse perspectives illuminate the universal and the particular effects of traumatic experience. For physicians and clinicians, determining the etiology of nightmares offers valuable diagnostic and therapeutic insights for individual treatment. This book provides a way of juxtaposing the research in the separate fields of trauma and dreams, and learning from their discoveries.

In: Nur Emotionen? Einblicke aus Medizin, Kunst und Geisteswissenschaften, Edition: Aspekte der Medizinphilosophie, Chapter: 15, Publisher: projektverlag, Editors: Christian Hoffstadt, Franz Peschke, Michael Nagenborg, Sabine Müller, Melanie Möller, pp.239-272

Since the introduction of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to the Diagnostical and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), ‚Trauma‘ has become an important narrative component in society, in popular culture and in the medical scientific culture. This article discusses the historical social and cultural development of PTSD. Especially the adaptation of PTSD in Popular Culture as in movies and most recently in computer games will be analyzed thoroughly. As a result, we can state that the discourse on PTSD oscillates between politicization and subjectivization.

Der vorliegende Artikel möchte zunächst von einer kurzen Historie der medizinischen Entwicklung der Diagnose ausgehend auf die politischen und sozialen Diskurse der PTSD hinweisen. Beide Aspekte, medizinische Definition und politisch-soziale Reflektion sind zu einem wichtigen Topos des Films geworden, die Bandbreite dieser Adaptionen kann hier
nur kurz skizziert werden. Im Anschluss wird dargelegt, wie PTSD (oder Trauma allgemein) im relativ neuen Medium der Computerspiele verarbeitet wird. Schließlich soll als Fazit deduktiv eine theoretische Verortung dieser Reflexionsprozesse unternommen werden.

This single group pretest-posttest study explores the effectiveness of trauma-focused psychodrama in the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at an inpatient addiction treatment center. The results contribute to the limited research bases of both psychodrama and PTSD treatment outcomes in inpatient addiction treatment. The present study supports the potential effectiveness of two trauma-focused psychodrama models, the Therapeutic Spiral Model and the Relational Trauma Repair Model. Findings of the research demonstrate clinically significant reductions in overall PTSD symptoms (over 25% change) and each PTSD symptom cluster (i.e., re-experiencing and intrusion, avoidance and numbing, and hyper-arousal). Additionally, patient satisfaction exit survey data support overall treatment effectiveness and highlight its tolerability, and capacity for establishing emotional safety, connection, and group cohesion. Patients even described the trauma-focused psychodrama treatment approach as enjoyable and helpful. Overall, the results of this study are promising, and support continued clinical application of trauma-focused psychodrama treatment with other subpopulations diagnosed with PTSD. However, the ability to isolate effects of trauma-focused psychodrama in this study is compromised due to the absence of a control group and participants' involvement in other inpatient treatment services.

The book opens with the author's vivid description of her life in a traditional family in Lithuania in the 1920s and 1930s, her studies at the Hebrew Gymnasium in Kovno, and the dramatic turn in Gitta’s life as a result of the Soviet occupation of Lithuania in 1940. Only a few days before the first gruesome massacres of the Lithuanian Jews, Gitta and her family are expelled from their home by the Soviets. Although they escape the claws of the murderous Nazis and Lithuanians, their destiny takes them to the terrifying banks of the Arctic Ocean.

Gitta’s account of life in Siberia is an extraordinary description of her confrontation with the brutal climate and the flinty Soviet authorities -- but also of an establishment of a Jewish community which, with enormous effort, attempted to reconstruct the spiritual-communal life it had known in Lithuania. The kingpins of this new Jewish community were Gitta’s father and the mother of her future husband, who taught the youth Hebrew, organized daily prayers, constructed Jewish calendars and initiated other activities.

Sixteen years later, following the long-awaited release from Siberian exile, the author and her husband (my father) in Vilna attempt to gain permission to immigrate to Israel. When their struggle runs into a brick wall, they express their longing for the Jewish homeland by naming their children with Jewish names and teaching them the Hebrew language openly. After thirteen years of tedious efforts, their stubborn struggle succeeds in triumph. The book ends with their landing in the Promised Land.

As the editor of this work, I have added to the memoirs a research wrapping of relevant footnotes and a professional article at the appendix dealing with the deportation of the Lithuanian Jews, based on NKVD documents that I uncovered at the special archives in Vilna. This extensive research material complements the author's memoirs from a scientific perspective and reveals for readers and researchers quite a fascinating piece of Jewish history that has disappeared until now into the shadow of Holocaust stories.

This study examines the prevalence of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms (PTSS) in adults and children who were exposed to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) autism early childhood intervention. Using an online questionnaire to survey autistic adults and caregivers of autistic children, we collected data from 460 respondents on demographics, intervention types, and current pathological behaviors with symptom severity scales. This study noted PTSS in nearly half of ABA-exposed participants, while non-exposed controls had a 72% chance of being asymptomatic. ABA satisfaction ratings for caregivers averaged neutral or mild satisfaction. In contrast, adult satisfaction with ABA was lower on average and also tended to take on either extremely low or extremely high ratings. Exposure to ABA predicted a higher rate and more severe PTSS in participants, but the duration of exposure did not affect satisfaction with the intervention in caregivers.

Research has shown a connection between trauma exposure and elevated health risks among police officers. This study explored police health professionals' knowledge and current practices in educating officers about the trauma-health relationship. Results indicated the main method of education included lectures and seminars, but participants expressed an openness to include practical exercises such as mindfulness and yoga. The majority of survey participants were aware of the connection between critical incident exposure and physical disease conditions. Participants were open to learning trauma prevention techniques to improve health and wellness and to promote resilience.

Through the use of metafictional autobiography, or the inclusion of the author’s thought process, the book goes from being a book about a survivor of trauma, to being a book for survivors of trauma. No Towers becomes a guide through PTSD and despair, offering comfort to the afflicted and greater empathy to the curious. Unable to effectively process his trauma, Spiegelman set out to write a book about the act of processing itself.

The Falklands War has been described and experienced as disproportionately traumatic. The war was the first following the consolidation of the diagnostic for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as the measurement for the traumatic nature of combat. Whilst a variety of different disciplines and literatures have explored the traumatic nature of warfare, the experiences and accounts of Falklands veterans have been key to the popularization of the PTSD model, as well as to campaigns around the treatment and rehabilitation of ex-combatants. Ex-combatants' Falklands memoirs share a number of explanations of trauma with the wider literature. However, Falklands soldiers' memoirs also provide invaluable insight into both the specificity of their battlefield experience, and suggest wider universal lessons on trauma more generally. Although presented as individual accounts, central to Falklands memoirs is the importance of the military collective body in maintaining resilience to, and enabling recuperation from, the traumatic impact of combat.

Tra il 1954 e il 1962, 1 milione e 200 mila soldati francesi di leva sbarcano al di là del Mediterraneo per combattere contro gli indipendentisti del Fronte di liberazione nazionale algerino.
Tra le file francesi i morti sono 26 mila e 300 mila i feriti; almeno dieci volte di più sono quelli algerini.
La guerra d’Algeria è stata una “guerra senza nome”, dissimulata con le denominazioni più varie ed enigmatiche quali “pacificazione” o “mantenimento dell’ordine”. Alla fine del conflitto i soldati francesi sono rifiutati dal proprio stesso Paese che con quel passato coloniale non vuole proprio fare i conti. Solo nel 1999 la Francia riconosce di aver combattuto una guerra tra il 1954 e il 1962.
Cinquant’anni dopo l’indipendenza dell’Algeria, cosa hanno da raccontare quei reduci, fra i gruppi maggiormente segnati dalla cesura burrascosa che ha messo fine all’“Algeria francese”?
Le loro memorie, raccolte in decine di interviste, sono al centro di questo libro.


Review by Paolo Mieli, «Corriere della Sera», 10 July 2012:

http://archiviostorico.corriere.it/2012/luglio/10/Quando_guerra_Algeria_era_una_co_9_120710002.shtml

Review by Anna Foa, «L'Osservatore Romano», 29 August 2012:

http://www.laterza.it//images/stories/pdf/9788842099659_MEMORIE%20CONTRAPPOSTE%20-%20SOLDATI%20SENZA%20CAUSA%20-%20ANDREA%20BRAZZODURO%20-%2029.08.2012.pdf

Review by Alessandro Triulzi, «il manifesto», 11 October 2012:

http://www.laterza.it//images/stories/pdf/9788842099659_ALGERIA%20VOCI%20DALLA%20GUERRA%20SENZA%20NOME%20-%20SOLDATI%20SENZA%20CAUSA.%20MEMORIE%20DELLA%20GUERRA%20DALGERIA%20-%20ANDREA%20BRAZZODURO%20-%2010.10.2012.pdf

Radio: «GR Parlamento», 2 November 2012:

http://www.rai.tv/dl/RaiTV/programmi/media/ContentItem-f4ab6ea0-ebb3-483c-b0ae-94d3c4150cd7-grp.html

Review by Goffredo Fofi, «Lo Straniero», n. 149, November 2012:

http://www.laterza.it//images/stories/pdf/9788842099659_LO%20STRANIERO%20-%20SOLDATI%20SENZA%20CAUSA%20-%20ANDREA%20BRAZZODURO%20-%2020.11.2012.pdf

Review by Daniele Rocca, «L'indice dei libri», December 2012:


(Traduction de la quatrième de couverture de l’édition italienne)

Soldats sans cause.
Mémoires de la guerre d’Algérie


Entre 1954 et 1962, 1 million et 200 mille soldats français du contingent débarquent au delà de la Méditerranée pour combattre contre les indépendantistes du Front de libération national algérien.
Dans les rangs des français les morts sont 26 mille et 300 mille les blessés ; au moins dix fois plus sont les morts et les blessés algériens.
La guerre d’Algérie a été une guerre « sans nom », dissimulée derrière les dénominations les plus variées et énigmatiques telles que « pacification » ou « maintien de l’ordre ». À la fin du conflit les soldats français sont refusés par leur propre Pays qui veut rapidement se laisser derrière les épaules ce passé colonial. Ce n’est qu’en 1999 que la France reconnaît d’avoir mené une guerre entre 1954 et 1962.
Cinquante ans après l’indépendance de l’Algérie, qu’ont-ils à raconter ces anciens combattants, un des groupes les plus marqués par ce passage orageux qui a mis fin à l’« Algérie française » ?
Leurs mémoires, recueillies en dizaines d’entretiens, sont au centre de ce livre."""""""

From Post Traumatic Stress Disorder to Post Traumatic Healing

The key is to make sense, to find meaning and purpose of the trauma.  “Why did God allow this to happen?” is the key question of struggle for people of faith, or anyone with any semblance of knowledge of a God.

The answer is found scripturally – that God has an ultimate purpose and meaning to the suffering of humanity.  More importantly, that through the love of Christ, the Christian community can be the instrument of healing by: 1) being present with the sufferers, walking with them through the darkness, 2) providing a ritual of wholeness, a service of healing, and 3) helping the injured work through forgiveness of self, society, the enemy and God.

Finally, the traumatized can then grow by finding strength – not relying solely on one’s own inner strength, i.e. Stoics and Epictetus, but through the providential love and strength that comes from God by the Word (written, enfleshed, and proclaimed), the presence of the Holy Spirit, and through the Christian community.