Lesson 7 - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Presentation of Theoretical Construct

 

Lecture Information: Further Implications for Classical Conditioning

                                                        i.      A diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) means that an individual experienced an event that involved a threat to one's own or another's life or physical integrity and that this person responded with intense fear, helplessness, or horror. There are a number of traumatic events that have been shown to cause PTSD in children and adolescents. Children and adolescents may be diagnosed with PTSD if they have survived natural and man made disasters such as floods; violent crimes such as kidnapping, rape or murder of a parent, sniper fire, and school shootings; motor vehicle accidents such as automobile and plane crashes; severe burns; exposure to community violence; war; peer suicide; and sexual and physical abuse.

                                                   ii.      Researchers and clinicians are beginning to recognize that PTSD may not present itself in children the same way it does in adults (see What is PTSD? below). Criteria for PTSD now include age-specific features for some symptoms.

                                              iii.      PTSD in adolescents may begin to more closely resemble PTSD in adults. However, there are a few features that have been shown to differ. As discussed above, children may engage in traumatic play following a trauma. Adolescents are more likely to engage in traumatic reenactment, in which they incorporate aspects of the trauma into their daily lives. In addition, adolescents are more likely than younger children or adults to exhibit impulsive and aggressive behaviors.

 

Back to Lesson 7 Index