PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Therapy

) can be approached clinically in several ways, since it falls into the general category of anxiety disorders for which cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy has developed multiple means.

In the immediate "anxiety symptoms and relaxation techniques (Jacobson, Autogenic training, etc.) must be addressed and hypnosis could be an immediate support more valid than drugs, since, although not everyone will benefit from them, those who will be able to experience them (and we are talking about numbers in the thousands) will at least be removed from the side effects of psychotropic drugs.

For those for whom pharmacology will be obliged, however, it is necessary to consider the opportunity to withdraw them from drugs as soon as possible, perhaps with the help of one of these techniques, in order to get as close as possible to the beginning of a non-emergency therapeutic phase.

At a later stage, other symptoms such as avoidance can be addressed. A first intervention with the technique of "systematic desensitization" can help many victims to remember attacks without experiencing excessive anxiety. This would mean opening a path to a medium-long term psychotherapy that could produce a "cognitive restructuring" of the patient, that is, it could help him to reconsider the whole event in a more objective light.

The psychological distress of many survivors, for example, is linked to the sense of guilt for "having made it" while many other innocent people died in their place by chance; in the relatives, on the other hand, an intense difficulty arises in mourning or in accepting the loss.

With a cognitive-behavioral therapy that makes use of at least the indicated techniques one can reasonably hope to bring patients back to an acceptable life in non-biblical times, since this type of therapy is centered on the problem and not on the root causes of psychological disorders. In cases such as PTSD, in fact, it is useless, if not harmful, to go deeper, since in order to hope to be able to intervene more deeply, it is first of all necessary to quickly free the patient from the grip of psychological discomfort in order to restore indispensable cognitive and emotional resources. .

PTSD: Emotocognitive Psychotherapy

When the patient has recovered to a psychological functioning closer to his usual levels, then one can think of engaging him in a more "relaxed" therapy that perhaps takes into account mainly his personality characteristics and individual history.

Psychological therapy with an emotocognitive orientation, aimed at the person who already has the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, aims to increase the possibility of functional reorganization of the person to facilitate access to personal and social resources capable of promoting resolution symptoms, prevent relapses or chronicity, or in any case improve the uncomfortable situation.

In the model of emotocognitive psychology, currently, post-traumatic and acute stress disorders are referred to as stress-reactive or stress-related anxiety disorders. In fact, the psychophysiological reaction to stress, that is the type of perception, representation, therefore the elaboration that the patient makes of it within a context that we define as bio-psycho-social, is what must be reorganized in order to attempt to remedy those symptoms that also seriously interfere with the "normal" performance of social activities , work, school and interpersonal.

The therapy of post-traumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder, in emotocognitive psychology, aims to break the vicious circle, defined as dysfunctional loop, which has been established at the psycho-social level; in other words, he will try to reorganize the resources that the patient uses to avoid and to unsuccessfully try to solve the problem no longer against himself but in his favor.

The disorder, we recall, is not fueled and maintained only by the patient's dysfunctional behaviors, thoughts and actions but also by the reactions of people who revolve around what we can define as the "bearer of the symptom".

Psychological therapy is short, as with almost all anxiety cluster disorders, and highly effective. It is obviously necessary to turn to expert psychologists able to use the new techniques derived from emotocognitive psychology.

, due to images or thoughts related to the traumatic event that came back to my mind.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

5. I have experienced strong recurring emotions related to it.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

6. I had dreams about that event.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

7. I have tried to avoid what might have reminded me.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

8. I got the feeling it didn't happen or wasn't real.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

9. I tried not to talk about it.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

10. Images of the event suddenly entered my mind.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

11. Other thoughts led me to think about it.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

12. I realized that I still have many emotions related to it, but I have not taken them into consideration.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

13. I tried not to think about it.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

14. Every memory reminded me of emotions linked to that "event.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often

15. The emotions attached to it were like a kind of daze.

Never Rarely Sometimes Often Intrusive symptoms = 1,4,5,6,10,11,14; Avoidance symptoms = 2,3,7,8,9,12,13,15

Edited by Dr. Stefano Casali

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Diagnostic Criteria