1. Post-traumatic stress disorder psychlotron.org.uk

2. Clinical characteristics Exposure to traumatic event Risk of death/injury to self/others Re-experiencing the event Flashbacks, dreams, intrusive memories Avoidance of trauma cues Talking, thinking, activities, amnesia General unresponsiveness Detachment, alienation, numbness psychlotron.org.uk

3. Clinical characteristics Lifetime prevalence 1-2.6% in general population Risk climbs with intensity & severity Large individual differences Social support reduces risk Onset following trauma may be delayed psychlotron.org.uk

4. Explaining PTSD Need to account for: Clinical features Variation in susceptibility Main perspectives: Biological Psychodynamic Behaviourist Cognitive psychlotron.org.uk

5. Biological perspective Damage to endocrine systems associated with stress Exaggerated stress responses Noradrenergic burnout Inherited vulnerability PTSD risk higher where family has a history of anxiety psychlotron.org.uk

6. Psychodynamic perspective Delayed onset & amnesia may indicate repression mechanisms Some evidence that early trauma increases vulnerability to PTSD psychlotron.org.uk

7. Behaviourist perspective Conditioned response to trauma cues ‘Re-experiencing’ type symptoms consistent with this Avoidance symptoms possibly due to operant learning psychlotron.org.uk

8. Cognitive perspective Trauma disrupts normal information processing Inability to assimilate experiences State/context dependent memories ‘Vulnerability’ schema psychlotron.org.uk

9. Treatments for PTSD Biological - drugs may help relieve anxiety symptoms Others - agree on the need to re-expose patient to trauma Catharsis (psychodynamic) Deconditioning (behaviourist) Assimilation & reality testing (cognitive) psychlotron.org.uk