This research was a controlled group outcome study to determine the effectiveness of a multisystem therapeutic intervention for hyperarousal to stress. It was assumed that the hyperarousal syndrome is a generalized and undifferentiated response which involves multisystems of the organism, including physiological-autonomic aspects, cognitive appraisals and imagery, affective components, and an array of overt and covert behavioral responses. If the hyperarousal syndrome persists over a period of time, a psychophysiological disorder may occur in the response system that has been repeatedly stimulated. It was postulated that learning to maintain the arousal state within a normal range of functioning may prevent the occurrence of psychophysiological diseases. Verbal reports of the experimental group indicate a beginning ability to transfer the learned low-arousal response to real-life situations. The results of this study suggest that learning a low-arousal adaptation to stress may have important implications for prevention or attenuation of psychophysiological and psychiatric disorders.

No description available.

No description available.

Experiencing traumatic events has a high lifetime prevalence ranging between 60.7 and 76.2% across different countries (1). Exposure to traumatic events is associated with a higher risk for various mental disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (2, 3), which are related to high individual and societal costs (4). The development of interventions to prevent adverse mental health consequences following traumatic event exposure is therefore of vital importance. This, however, requires detailed knowledge about the underlying biological and psychological mechanisms involved in the association between traumatic events and psychopathology. Various risk factors at different levels have already been described in the last decades (5). Biological risk factors include genetic and epigenetic variations (6), alterations in the function of the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis (7, 8) and the autonomic nervous system (9) as well as changes in brain structure and functioning (10). Psychological risk factors include impairments in cognitive abilities (11) and specific personality traits such as high trait anxiety (12) and maladaptive emotion regulation (13). Social risk factors include impaired interpersonal relations and stigmatization (14, 15). Further, clinical risk factors such as mental health history as well as previous traumatic experiences may also increase the risk for psychopathology after trauma exposure (16). Most of these factors are supposed to be associated with risk of psychopathology independent of the type of traumatic event. However, it is likely that specific traumatic events are associated with different constellations of risk factors, which has so far received little attention in the existing literature. Importantly, traumatic events explicitly include not only events that are personally experienced but also events that are witnessed by an observer (17). This includes witnessing someone being seriously hurt, seeing atrocities or witnessing dead bodies. Witnessed traumatic events are among the most frequent traumatic experiences (1). They are also of high current relevance in the contexts of natural disasters, terrorist attacks and military crises (16, 18, 19). The fact that individuals can develop psychopathological reactions to events that are actually experienced by others raises the question how the suffering of others is being processed. Based on theoretical models and findings from social cognition and neuroscience research, we propose that socio-affective and socio-cognitive mechanisms are involved in the processing and pathological consequences of witnessing traumatic events and could contribute to a better understanding of adverse reactions to this type of traumatic events.

Personer som genomgått en traumatisk händelse befinner sig i riskzonen för att utveckla post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), som innebär en stor livsbegränsning och ett stort lidande. Dagligen möter hälso- och sjukvårdspersonal personer som ännu ej diagnostiserats och det är därför av vikt att kunna identifiera PTSD-symptom. Syftet med litteraturstudien var att undersöka samband mellan olika trauman och PTSD-symptom enligt diagnostiseringssystemet DSM IV. Studien grundades på en deduktiv ansats och resultatet bestod av 15 vetenskapliga artiklar som granskades. Resultatet behandlade DSM IV:s tre symptomkluster: re-experience/intrusion, avoidance och hyperarousal. Studien fann att det kan föreligga en skillnad mellan olika typer av trauma och vilka PTSD-symptom som var det mest frekvent upplevda. Det framkom också i studien att re-experience/intrusion och avoidance var de kluster som var mest frekventa hos dem som uppvisade PTSD-symptom efter ett trauma. Det finns ett behov av en utökad kvalitativ forskning inom området PTSD-symptom, samtidigt som hälso- och sjukvårdpersonal är i behov av att hålla sig uppdaterade när det kommer till de symptom som är ett resultat av sjukdomen. Det är av vikt att synliggöra PTSD och att låta kunskapen kring psykisk ohälsa få mer utrymme under sjuksköterskeutbildningen. För att tidigare kunna identifiera PTSD krävs en utförligare anamnes, där sjuksköterskan kan synliggöra tidigare upplevda trauman hos personen. Personer som hälso- och sjukvården vet har genomgått ett tidigare trauma kan vara i behov att screenas för PTSD.

The current study examines the effects of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and menstrual cycle phase on psychophysiologic reactivity to a loud tones task in a population of female trauma survivors. Estradiol and progesterone fluctuate throughout the menstrual cycle; prior research has shown the variety of effects these hormones have on the Hypothalamic-Pituitary Adrenal (HPA) axis, glucocorticoids, stress and anxiety homeostasis, and conditionability. We hypothesized greater reactivity for participants with PTSD, and that menstrual cycle would moderate the effects of PTSD and performance on the loud tones task. Results indicated heart rate was higher in participants in the mid-luteal phase than early follicular phase. Several results were surprising, including that participants with PTSD demonstrated less startle reactivity and faster habituation (as measured using the left orbicularis electromyogram (O-EMG) measure) than participants in the trauma control group for. Considerations are made for demographics, sample size, and the number of potential underlying mechanisms for PTSD.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The current trauma literature lacks adequate differentiation between the effects of sexual versus non-sexual trauma on stimuli responses as well as analyses of the college campus as a uniquely challenging environment for rape survivors. In the first study, 66 adults (22 with sexual trauma experience, 22 with non-sexual trauma experience, and 22 with no significant trauma experience) will be exposed to vignettes with threat-generalized, rape-related or neutral stimuli and their arousal rates in response to these cues will be recorded using Galvanic Skin Response and Heart Rate. It is expected that individuals who have experienced sexual assault will show more arousal in response to the rape-related stimuli than the threat-generalized stimuli. In the second study, 44 college age females who have been sexually assaulted (22 living on a college campus, 22 living off of a college campus) will be exposed to the same vignette conditions as in the first study. These women will also be asked to rate their daily/weekly exposure to certain situations or objects representative of the college environment. It is expected that individuals with a higher exposure to rape culture score will be more aroused by the rape-related stimuli. Mowrer’s two-factor theory of learning (1956) along with the shame (Feldner et al., 2010) accompanying sexual trauma suggests that sexually assaulted individuals will exhibit higher levels of arousal to the rape-related stimuli rather than the threat-generalized stimuli, as other trauma victims might.