Evidence has linked alterations of the endocannabinoid system with trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Childbirth-related PTSD symptoms (CB-PTSS) affect about every eighth woman and can negatively influence the entire family. While aetiological models of CB-PTSD include psychological risk factors such as maternal trauma history and negative subjective birth experience (SBE), they lack biological risk indicators. We investigated whether lifetime trauma and CB-PTSS were associated with long-term endocannabinoid concentrations during pregnancy. Further, we tested endocannabinoids as mediators between lifetime trauma and CB-PTSS and whether SBE moderated such mediational paths. Within the prospective cohort study DREAMHAIR, 263 expectant mothers completed trauma assessments and provided hair samples for quantification of long-term endocannabinoid levels (anandamide [AEA], 2-arachidonoylglycerol [1-AG/2-AG], and N-acyl-ethanolamides [NAE]) prior to their anticipated birth date. Two months postpartum, CB-PTSS and SBE were measured. Regression models controlling for relevant confounders showed no association between lifetime trauma and hair endocannabinoids during pregnancy, yet higher number of lifetime trauma events and lower hair AEA were significantly associated with CB-PTSS, with the latter finding not remaining significant when Bonferroni corrections due to multiple testing were applied. While hair AEA did not mediate the association between lifetime trauma and CB-PTSS, the effect of lower hair AEA on CB-PTSS was stronger upon negative SBE. Results suggest greater lifetime trauma and reduced maternal hair AEA during pregnancy may be associated with increased risk for CB-PTSS, particularly upon negative SBE. Findings confirm lifetime trauma as a CB-PTSS risk factor and add important preliminary insights on the role of endocannabinoid ligand alterations and SBE in CB-PTSS pathology.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is marked by avoidance, arousal, re-experiencing, and negative mood and cognition. To date, these symptoms are assessed using self-report measures (e.g., the PCL-5) and clinician administered assessments (e.g., the CAPS-5). While these are the present gold-standard assessments for PTSD, they still are prone to bias on behalf of both the administrator and the patient. Presently, there is evidence that individuals with PTSD perform differently than individuals without PTSD on certain cognitive tasks that measure attention bias and avoidance behaviors. As such, creating a battery of these tasks may be a viable route for objectively measuring PTSD. In an effort to provide preliminary evidence for such a battery, we used three cognitive assessments [the Emotional Stroop Task (EST), the Visual Search Task (VST), and the Approach Avoidance Task (AAT)] to assess cognitive performance in veterans with PTSD, and veterans and civilians without PTSD. We hypothesized that veterans with PTSD would perform worse than the other groups (as measured by reaction times and accuracy scores) following the presentation of combat-related stimuli compared to negative and positive stimuli. The results indicated that veterans with PTSD were generally slower across all conditions in the EST, had lower accuracy scores on the VST, and were slower in the combat condition compared to the other control groups in the AAT. This study provides preliminary support for the hypothesis that a battery of cognitive tasks may be an effective tool for objectively identifying PTSD. Furthermore, we discuss important methodological ways in which future studies could improve the sensitivity of these tasks.

The pandemic affected daily life on an unprecedented global scale resulting in the need for adaptation and flexibility to cope with ongoing stress, uncertainty, and loss that may affect couple relationships. Understanding resource loss in the context of mass stress events is critical because resource loss has been defined as the primary agent of stress (Hobfoll, 1989). As such, it is important to understand what factors may have shaped the degree of resource loss incurred during the pandemic. Extant research implies that considering early life adversity may be useful to explore as it may be a form of resource loss and is linked to poorer mental health and relational outcomes in adulthood. Furthermore, the stress sensitization hypothesis posits that childhood adversity may prime individuals to have a lower threshold for later life stress. This study utilizes both the stress sensitization hypothesis and the conservation or resources theory as lenses for understanding how childhood adversity affects pandemic-related resource loss for couples. Given that myriad resource loss was a prominent feature of the pandemic, it will be useful to understand whether childhood adversity sets individuals and couples up to experience greater loss in the context of pandemic-related stressors. Additionally, few studies have addressed the influence of mass stressors in the context of couple relationships using data from both partners. This gap in the literature is problematic because the pandemic's unique constraints and stressors were shared and lived in relationships and mental health distress tends to be interrelated among partners. This study is thus designed to examine how family of origin stress (reported at the outset of pandemic related shutdowns in the US in April 2020) associated with posttraumatic stress (PTSS) 3 months later (July 2020) to, in turn, predict variation in resource losses reported 3 months later (October 2020) associated with the COVID-19 pandemic in 535 cisgender, heterosexual couples. Findings showed that individual's higher family of origin stress predicted higher levels of their own PTSS at wave 2, and higher PTSS at wave 2 predicted higher levels of couples' shared resource loss at wave 3. Additionally, family of origin stress associated with higher levels of couples' shared experience of loss via higher levels of their own PTSS.

Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes are a major preventable cause of death in the United States. One potential factor that may modulate the influence of alcohol intoxication on driving-related decision-making is posttraumatic stress. The current study evaluated the influence of induction of acute trauma-related stress (via script-driven imagery) during alcohol intoxication (.06% BrAC) on driving-related risky decision-making – willingness to drive, driving-related decision-making (i.e., attempted red light runs), and driving-related reaction time (i.e., braking latency) – among 56 trauma-exposed (currently symptomatic) adult drinkers from the community (M = 25.32; 46.4% female). Results indicated that trauma-related stress may exacerbate willingness to drive during a state of acute alcohol intoxication, but, alternatively, may have only a minimal-to-moderate effect on performance-based, driving-related decision-making (i.e., red light runs), and a potentially mitigating impact on driving-related reaction time (i.e., braking latency) under the influence of alcohol. Generally, results suggest that trauma-related stress may differentially impact varying aspects of driving-related risky decision-making, above and beyond the influence of alcohol. Implications for theoretical modeling for driving-related decision-making during acute intoxication and for the advancement of education and intervention efforts, as well as suggestions for future directions, including methodological and procedural improvements, are discussed.

The present investigation evaluated whether dispositional use of emotional approach coping partially accounts for the association between parental response to emotional expression and posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) in a sample of 252 trauma-exposed individuals drawn from a pool of college students and college-age members of the community at-large. An online survey assessed parental reactions to participants' negative emotions during childhood (i.e., offspring retrospective report), as well as participant trauma history, PTSS, and use of emotional approach coping. Findings complement literature illustrating the long-lasting implications of the parent-child relationship, such that both supportive and unsupportive parenting were related to PTSS. Supportive parental reactions also were related to emotional expression, but not emotional processing, and unsupportive reactions did not significantly relate to either aspect of emotional approach coping. Notably, emotional approach coping strategies were unrelated to PTSS in the full sample, and thus the indirect effects models were not supported. Post hoc analyses indicated preliminary support for the indirect effect of emotional expression on the relation between supportive parenting and PTSS in the local college student sample (n = 117). Limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

Having a secure attachment to God may act as a buffer against stress. Secure attachment to God has been positively associated with adaptive outcomes following stress, such as higher levels of stress-related growth and fewer maladaptive symptoms including depression, prolonged grief, and traumatic distress. However, relatively few studies have empirically tested the relationship between attachment to God and resilience and posttraumatic growth. Thus, the current study explored the potential associations and pathways through which attachment to God is associated with resilience and posttraumatic growth in a sample of 303 suddenly and/or traumatically bereaved individuals. The current study found that (a) God attachment avoidance is a unique negative predictor of resilience and posttraumatic growth even when controlling for adult attachment, (b) self-compassion and meaning-making mediate the association between God attachment anxiety and resilience/posttraumatic growth, (c) secure attachment to God is associated with higher levels of resilience than insecure attachment styles, but not with posttraumatic growth, and (d) an increased number of secondary losses is associated with lower levels of resilience. I conclude by discussing my findings in light of the extant literature on attachment to God, resilience, and posttraumatic growth. By better understanding attachment to God and how it may relate to resilience and posttraumatic growth, clinicians will be better equipped to interact with clients of diverse religious/spiritual (R/S) identities, potentially utilizing R/S as a strength or addressing maladaptive aspects of R/S in the wake of life stressors.

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In my thesis, I postulated the target to map the methods and procedures applied by the CR Police, Regional Police Headquarters of the South-Bohemian Region within the primary, secondary as well as tertiary prevention of posttraumatic reactions and disorder. A partial target of the thesis is finding out the rate of the satisfaction with availability of intervention care for policemen and employees of the Regional Police Headquarters of the South-Bohemian Region, finding out the rate of the awareness, usability and satisfaction with the care of the posttraumatic intervention team in the South-Bohemian Region, awareness of the service Help Line in crisis and its usability. Moreover I postulated the goal to map the interest in the possible internet helpline in the scope of IZS with elaboration of SWOD analysis. Everybody, also policemen may suffer from stress reaction. Also they can have the psychical and physical signs of an acute stress reaction. They perform the most of service acts, interventions in a routine way, however, besides this, also situations occur, differing from the normal life experience and policemen get in this way very often into the stress situations, which can arouse deep mental turbulences. The impact of feelings on the mental state in case of extreme experiences is a normal human reaction in a not normal situation. At present, each policeman has the possibility to ask for help a team of specially trained experts, the team of posttraumatic intervention care. In the team, not only psychologists are working, but also experienced policemen, experts of the branch of the Ministry of Interior and the priests prepared to help with their experience, erudition and knowledge acquired by a special training. Since 2001 the impacted person may call the anonymous Crisis Help Line, which is a supporting part of the posttraumatic intervention care for the policemen, firemen, employees of the branch of the Ministry of Interior and their family members. The crisis help line is also at disposal to the public in case of extraordinary events and crisis situations. For this reason, this thesis treats the methods of posttraumatic intervention care, awareness, usability, satisfaction and trust in these branch offices of the CR Police.

Inledning: Behovet av traumabehandling till flyktingar har ökat. Psykoterapeuten blir vittne till berättelser som handlar om lidande, rädsla och smärta. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur psykoterapeuter upplever sitt arbete med behandling av krigs- och tortyrskadade flyktingar. Frågeställningar: 1. Hur upplever psykoterapeuter arbetet med krigs- och tortyrskadade flyktingar? 2. Använder sig psykoterapeuter av bemästringsstrategier för att hantera sina upplevelser i arbetet med krigs- och tortyrskadade flyktingar? Om så är fallet, vilka? Metod: Kvalitativ metod med fenomenologisk, deskriptiv ansats valdes. Fem psykoterapeuter som arbetar med krigs- och tortyrskadade flyktingar intervjuades. Resultat: Studiens resultat har en manifest del och en latent del. ”Att pendla mellan vanmakt och skapande förändring” är ett tema som representerar det underliggande, latenta budskapet, d.v.s. det som sägs ”mellan raderna” och representerar den röda tråd som finns i samtliga intervjuer. Det manifesta resultatet visar att terapeuterna upplever sitt arbete som ett privilegium och som betungande. Terapeuterna använder medvetna bemästringsstrategier för att hantera känslomässig stress. Diskussion: Terapeuternas beskrivning av sitt arbete med krigs- och tortyrskadade stämmer väl överens med tidigare forskning. Terapeuternas upplevelse av sitt arbete kan förstås genom begreppen motöverföring, projektiv identifikation, vikarierande traumatisering, sekundär traumatisk stress och posttraumatic growth. / Introduction: The need for trauma treatment for refugees has increased. The psychotherapist testifies to stories that concern suffering, fear and pain. The purpose of this study is to investigate how psychotherapists experience their work in dealing with war and torture injured refugees. Research questions: How do psychotherapists experience the work of war and torture injured refugees? Are psychotherapists using coping strategies to handle their experiences in the work of war and torture-injured refugees? If so, which? Method: Qualitative method with phenomenological, descriptive approach was chosen. Five psychotherapists working with war and torture injured refugees were interviewed. Results: ”Oscillating between powerlessness and creative change" is a theme that represents the underlying latent message, what is said "between the lines" and represents the red thread found in all the interviews. The manifest results show that the therapists experience their work as a privilege and as burdensome. The therapists use conscious coping strategies to deal with emotional stress. Discussion: The therapists' description of their work on war and torture injured is in line with previous research. Therapists' experience of their work can be understood by the concepts of transference, projective identification, vicarious traumatization, secondary traumatic stress and posttraumatic growth.

No description available.