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Traumatic and painful situations are part of human history. There is a very high
probability that these situations will affect most people at least once in their lifetime.
realities that some people go through, such as gender violence, terrorist attacks, wars,
which leads to the conclusion that a great percentage of the population suffers from
PostTraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Hapke, Schumann, Rumpf, John & Meyer, 2006;
accidents, sexual abuse, and natural disasters. Individuals who suffer from this disorder
manifest intense fear, impotence, horror, distress (Yehuda, McFarlane & Shaley; 1998;
Escobar &Uribe, 2014). Theory of psychoanalysis states that PTSD occurs when an
external event cannot be dealt by the person, creating a mental imbalance that is expressed
in a reduction of the defensive and the coping ability. There is an alteration of the
emotional, cognitive and volitional processes, which is difficult to assimilate (Escobar &
Uribe, 2014).
Unlike other mental disorders, PTSD follows a trigger event and has a clear starting
point. Furthermore, the intensity, duration and proximity of the exposition to the traumatic
event are important factors that establish whether the individual will develop this disorder
Some authors such as Bisson & Andrew (2007) and Escobar & Uribe (2014)
related to trauma and stressors, and enumerates specific symptoms for each of the three
categories, which indicate that the patient must have at least one intrusion symptoms, three
avoidance symptoms and two excitation symptoms. These symptoms must last over a
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month and produce a serious clinical discomfort in the following areas: social,
The fact that many people exposed to traumatic situations do not develop this
disorder leads the conclusion that there are other factors that promote the manifestation of
PTSD.
Boisson (2007); Javidi & Yadollahie (2012); Escobar &Uribe (2014) estate that
there are risky factors that increase the probability to suffer a PTSD, such as the existence
trauma, family psychiatric history, a perception of lack of social support, among others.
On one hand, the different proposed treatments of the PTSD indicate the huge
complexity of this disorder. Some authors such as Shalev, Bonne & Eth (1996); Qi et al.
(2016); Boisson (2007) declare that most effective treatments are the cognitive
behavioural therapy, the therapy of extended exposition, deal with stress and the medicine.
On the other hand, Yehuda, Hoge et al. (2015) suggest that treatment should imply a
Conclusion
The traumatic event constitutes the experience of the human history. Nowadays, it
is not alien to the daily life of several people. In search of an answer to that experience we
find that in the last decades there has been a remarkable increase in the investigations
so an early procedure would be necessary in order to detect the possible symptoms and to
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Moreover, it is important to highlight that the schedule of the treatment needs to
more effective if the researchers focused more in the development of preventive plans,
therapies focused on strengthening the protection factors and treatments that can solve the
To conclude, it is relevant to say that there is a need for further investigation about
the different factors that affect the development of PTSD, which could clarify the
relationship between the PTSD and the different components such as the cognitive,
References
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Bisson, J. & Andrew, M. (2007). Psychological treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder
Bisson, J. (2007). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Occupational Medicine, 65, 399-403. doi
https://doi.org/10.1093/occmed/kqm069
Hapke, U., Schumann, A., Rumpf, HJ., John, U. & Meyer, C. (2006). Post-traumatic stress
disorder. The role of trauma, pre-existing psychiatric disorder, and gender. Eur
Qi, W., Gevonden, M. & Shalev, A. (2016). Prevention of post-traumatic stress disorder
after trauma: Current evidence and future directions. Curr Psychiatry Rep, 1-11.
doi 10.1007/s11920-015-0655-0
Yehuda, R., Hoge, C., McFarlane, A., Vermetten, E., Laniues, R., Nievergelt, C., …
22. doi:10.1038/nrdp.2015.57
Yehuda R, McFarlane A.C. & Shalev A.Y. (1998). Predicting the development of
posttraumatic stress disorder from the acute response to a traumatic event. Biol