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
- Fainting
- Dizziness/transitory blindness
- Transitory deafness or changed acoustic perception
- Numbness
- Transitory paralysis
- Analgesia
- Heavy and tired
- Tension
- Feeling of nausea or cold sweat
- Ever felt as though you were outside your body
- Moments when you were unable to speak or could only whisper for a period of time
- Ever felt suddenly weak and warm