Psychotherapy and Quantum Field Theory (QFT) Page 2

Conditions associated with PTSD

  • Depression
  • Anxiety
  • Substance misuse
  • Eating disorders
  • OCD
  • Dissociative disorders
  • Borderline personality disorder

Children in foster care

  • Rates of PTSD vary from 12 -40% (Kolko et al. Child maltreatment, 2010)
  • In the general population: the rate for female adolescents is twice that for males (Stam, 2007. Neuroscience and Biobehavioural reviews)

Following sexual abuse

  • 50% met criteria for PTSD (Barlow, 2002)
  • 30% of rape victims
  • 60% of sexual assault victims in war experience PTSD
  • Worldwide massive ongoing tsunami of cases of PTSD

Risk Factors

  • Trauma type
  • Exposure to violence esp. domestic
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Socioeconomic status
  • Developmental level
  • Past psychiatric history
  • Support and acute reaction to trauma

What improves outcome?

  • Child’s perception of family support crucial in moderating the disorder.
  • Once established by one month persist unless targeted effective trauma-focused therapy is received.
  • Trauma-focused therapy necessary to improve psychological well being and establish resilience leading to recovery.

Symptoms

  • First month after trauma termed acute stress disorder or ASD >50% go onto develop PTSD
  • Late onset PTSD is the norm:

    • Cumulative effect of exposure
    • Fear conditioning
    • Kindling
    • Sensitization

Children

  • Regression (thumb sucking, bedwetting
  • Mute or immature speech)
  • Nightmares (sheer terror monsters)
  • Sleep disturbances
  • Reenactment through trauma play
  • Hyperarousal with a startle response
  • Irritable, angry, detached
  • Memory clouded impaired concentration

Adolescents

  • Sense of foreshortened future
  • Forecast future in negative terms
  • Regression :
    • High risk behaviour
    • Suicidality
    • Substance misuse
    • Non suicidal self-injury
    • Depressive withdrawal

Anticipatory stress response

Feeling based on emotions:
– Fear
– Distress
– Anger
– Rage
– Humiliation
– Shame
– Despair
– Panic

Different emotions and facial expressions

fMRI of affect and cognition

Shutdown scale for dissociation

  1. Fainting
  2. Dizziness/transitory blindness
  3. Transitory deafness or changed acoustic perception
  4. Numbness
  5. Transitory paralysis
  6. Analgesia
  7. Heavy and tired
  8. Tension
  9. Feeling of nausea or cold sweat
  10. Ever felt as though you were outside your body
  11. Moments when you were unable to speak or could only whisper for a period of time
  12. Ever felt suddenly weak and warm