Top » Post-traumatic Stress » Articles

Challenges and Obstacles in Treating Mentally Ill African American Patients
As the United States becomes more culturally, racially, and ethnically diverse, psychiatry will be faced with the necessity to treat more diverse populations. This article focuses on challenges and obstacles encountered when treating African American patients with mental illness. The African American community in the United States is not a monolithic, homogeneous community. The heterogeneity of the community as a function of the African diaspora is complex and deserving of an understanding that goes beyond the phenotypic identification and assignment of individuals to what we believe to be “African American.�1 Language, ethnic culture (e.g., Caribbean vs southern born), religious practices, socioeconomic status, immigration or refugee status, and the historical participation, or lack thereof, in the unique American experience of race relations defines how persons experience being “African American� and express mental illness.
Preview Website - 20-Jul-2007 - Hits: 24 - Rate This | Details

Change Can Be Hazardous to Your Health
In this quick article, discussion of change in relationships is discussed. How can a person overcome the problems when they leave an old relationship? How can a person recover from the anguish? Find out here.
Preview Website - 29-Mar-2006 - Hits: 1222 - Rate This | Details

Coping with the Loss of a Spouse ^{Top Rated}
Having a spouse die is a horrible, and traumatic event in a person's life. While a person probably never can completely cope with the loss of a spouse, Dr. Martin shows some simple and easy to understand steps that can help.
Preview Website - 29-Mar-2006 - Hits: 817 - Rate This | Details

Does Stress Cause Heart Disease?
Can a person acquire heart disease because of stress? It is true that stress is bad and it is harmful to a persons health in extremes. What damage can stress do? Relax, take a deep breath, and find out here.
Preview Website - 29-Mar-2006 - Hits: 536 - Rate This | Details

Exposure To A Traumatic Event Does Not Automatically Put A Person On A Path To Develop PTSD
This article presents a principle that is essential to building a wellness approach that uses public health prevention strategies to prevent Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and other psychiatric disorders that come from exposure to trauma.
Preview Website - 20-Jul-2007 - Hits: 79 - Rate This | Details

How to Provide Spiritually Sensitive Trauma Care
Trauma care providers may not be addressing the whole person if they avoid inquiry about how the client’s faith and religious perspectives are being affected by the trauma. For many people, spirituality forms the root of their identity. Consequently, neglecting the spiritual dimension is like ignoring a client’s social environment or physical health state.1
Preview Website - 20-Jul-2007 - Hits: 31 - Rate This | Details

Partners with PTSD ^{Top Rated}
"If you are a partner of someone with PTSD, I thank you for reading this. Somebody who relies on you wants you to appreciate and respect the condition that haunts them. With so much in the popular press, on television and in movies that touches on trauma, it is easy to have partial information about traumatic stress, but to miss the full impact of this profound condition." This article provides useful information for partners and family members of PTSD survivors.
Preview Website - 2-Sep-2003 - Hits: 434 - Rate This | Details

Trauma Addiction - Safety and Stabilization for the Addicted Survivor of Trauma
There is a fairly common phenomenon where trauma can lead to addiction and addiction leads back to trauma. A survivor of trauma is at a significantly greater risk of developing some type of addiction and the reverse is also true. Having this awareness, it is imperative that we look at more effective ways of treating this unique condition. The challenge of providing effective treatment and interventions for persons with both posttraumatic stress and addiction has caused many a seasoned clinician to shudder. "Dually diagnosed," seems to rank with Borderline Personality Disorder as one of the more pejorative and emotionally laden labels that saddle clients. Addicted survivors of trauma are often the recipients of the anger, frustration, and trepidation of health care workers due to the difficulty in both conceptualizing and administering effective treatment to this population.
Preview Website - 14-Oct-2004 - Hits: 349 - Rate This | Details

Utilizing First Person Story with Trauma Survivors in Bosnia and Sri Lanka
Their stories weave the thread of life. In the last hundred years life on the planet has been rife with continuous wars and natural catastrophes compiling never before told ‘first person’ stories on a horrific scale. What is a first person story? In essence, it is the ‘unplugged’ version of one’s first hand experience that weaves itself into one’s her/history. Nowhere is this more evident than when one re-counts the traumatic events of their lives. Germaine Greer states that first person is in actuality ‘feminism.’ Books, journals and other media venues have not arrayed a collection on women’s first person stories unless it can be reduced to a ‘sound bite’, 300 hundred word essay or the normal victim role for women bathed in silence.
Preview Website - 20-Jul-2007 - Hits: 24 - Rate This | Details

Vicarious Trauma in Attorneys
Authors: Dr. Andrew Levin & Scott Greisberg, MA

Although secondary trauma and burnout have been the subject of investigation in emergency workers and mental health professionals, no systematic studies have evaluated these responses in attorneys. Growing out of our collaboration with the Pace Women’s Justice Center, we designed a survey to assess the presence of secondary trauma responses and symptoms of burnout in attorneys working with victims of domestic violence and criminal defendants. Compared with two control groups consisting of mental health providers and social services workers, attorneys surveyed demonstrated significantly higher levels of secondary traumatic stress and burnout. This difference appeared related to the attorneys' higher caseloads and lack of supervision around trauma and its effects. These findings create a starting point for further study into attorney responses and methods of ameliorating the stress of work with traumatized clients.
Preview Website - 10-Dec-2004 - Hits: 109 - Rate This | Details