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Post-traumatic stress disorder
Published in Alison Brodrick, Emma Williamson, Listening to Women After Childbirth, 2020
Alison Brodrick, Emma Williamson
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a constellation of symptoms resulting in an individual feeling a sense of current, ongoing danger, despite the threatening trigger event being in the past. PTSD is rooted in the way in which the brain processes trauma, and has probably therefore been a human response to frightening events since the human brain evolved. As a clinical entity, PTSD was not formally identified until 1980 with much of the emerging evidence coming from observing war veterans throughout the conflicts of the twentieth century (Foy et al, 1984). These early incarnations of PTSD are well known to us through the terms ‘shell shock’ or ‘combat fatigue’ as it was recognised that huge numbers of war veterans seemed to suffer from a symptoms such as intrusive flashbacks, nightmares, excessive emotional reactions and hypervigilance, or a sense of being permanently ‘on guard’. As PTSD began to be formally recognised, attention slowly shifted to understand how it can occur in populations other than military veterans, such as people who have been involved in natural disasters, accidents, or sexual violence. In was not until the 1990s that clinicians and researchers began talking about the possibility that the term ‘birth trauma’ may refer to more than just physical injury: childbirth – including ‘normal’ births – could also be psychologically traumatic and result in PTSD (for example, see Reynolds, 1997).
What Ginseng Can Do For You
Published in Joseph P. Hou, The Healing Power of Ginseng, 2019
Fatigue is the common symptom of weariness that occurs after sustained or intensive physical or mental strain. Fatigue causes irritability, decreased ability to concentrate, a tendency to be upset by trivialities, and impairment of the ability to rationalize. Most often, psychiatric fatigue, such as combat fatigue during a period of war, is a very common symptom of distress, uneasiness, or emotional disorders. Common symptoms associated with these disorders are headache, chest pain, very rapid beating of the heart, along with difficulty in breathing. Certain illnesses such as anemia, chronic infection, malnutrition, metabolic disease, and endocrine gland disorders may cause chronic fatigue.
Mental health
Published in Ian Greaves, Military Medicine in Iraq and Afghanistan, 2018
Despite relatively low levels of both CMD and PTSD among R&R study participants given recent high levels of combat exposure, around half of personnel drank hazardously while they were at home. Greater combat exposure and longer pre-R&R deployment length was associated with reduced satisfaction with R&R, more alcohol misuse and functional impairment arising from mental health symptoms. Combat fatigue may well have impaired engagement with R&R and might also explain why some personnel reinstated their alcohol use so rapidly during the brief period spent at home as they misguidedly sought to improve their state of mind. R&R therefore appears to be less restorative for those with greater combat exposure, unfortunately the very group that R&R seeks to help the most.
Matthew J. Friedman, M.D., Ph.D. and His Legacy of Leadership in the Field of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
Published in Psychiatry, 2022
John H. Krystal, Steven M. Southwick, Matthew J. Girgenti
In order to appreciate the impact of the two initiatives led by Matt on our understanding of the neurobiology of PTSD, one must first appreciate how limited our understanding of PTSD was prior to the creation of NCPTSD. Although physiologic studies of “shell shock,” “combat fatigue,” and related conditions took place in the context of both World Wars, modern neuroscience approaches to PTSD began following the establishment of this diagnosis in DSM III in 1980 (Krystal et al., 1989). The emergence of neuroscience as an important domain of PTSD research revolved around five key perspectives: 1) aspects of PTSD resembled Pavlovian fear conditioning (Blanchard et al., 1982), 2) antidepressant medications were helpful in reducing PTSD symptoms (Frank et al., 1988; Friedman, 1988), 3) studies of urine hormone levels implicated sympathetic arousal and cortisol dysregulation (Kosten et al., 1987; Mason et al., 1986), 4) sleep EEG studies reported altered sleep architecture (Lavie et al., 1979), and 5) basic neuroscience could provide a framework that would inform our understanding of the neurobiology and treatment of PTSD (Van der Kolk et al., 1985).
Self-reported factors contributing to fatigue and its management in adolescents and adults with cerebral palsy
Published in Disability and Rehabilitation, 2021
Laura K. Brunton, Patrick G. McPhee, Jan Willem Gorter
A limited understanding of the factors that generate fatigue has also led to an individual “trial and error” management model of fatigue. Currently, there are no available evidence-based fatigue management interventions to provide to individuals with CP. The results of this study provide some insight into the strategies that people with CP are currently using. Participants listed strategies such as using relaxation techniques, rest, increasing their sleep amounts, altering activities, using physical activity as a preventative measure, and using individualized adaptations or assistive devices to manage or reduce fatigue. Empirical evidence regarding the effectiveness of these strategies is needed to reduce the burden on the individual to self-identify strategies to combat fatigue with minimal support from clinicians and the healthcare community. When participants were asked to consider what other people could do to help manage their fatigue, they described the desire both to have others motivate them to be more active and to recognize when activities may cause significant fatigue, potentially reflecting the uncertainty surrounding exercise prescription for this population.
Word Ban? Wherefore “Vulnerable”
Published in Issues in Mental Health Nursing, 2018
This long explanation of our use of the term vulnerable does not mean that it should still be used or that I'm defending its continued use. Our use of words changes as time goes on, as we know more, as we can speak more precisely about a particular situation, event, or problem. Consider, for instance the progression in our understanding of emotional reactions to war and the change in use of the term “shell shock” to “combat fatigue” to “post-traumatic stress disorder.” And it should be acknowledged that words have political and social connotations that go in and out of vogue – I was cautioned once not to call our students “foreign” students but “international” students. As another example, think of the weight and judgment that accompanies our choice of words such as “illegal aliens” vs “undocumented workers/persons.”