Introduction to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Welcome to the course and thank you for your purchase. In this lecture you are introduced to the course and its content. There is also an excellent resource by the UK based mental health charity MIND.

In this lecture we begin to look at the history of PTSD from its recognition, assessment, diagnosis and treatment.

We move on to looking at some of the classic symptoms to suggest that somebody may be experiencing PTSD, such as dreams, flashbacks and hyper-vigilance.

Hyper-vigilance is one of the main symptoms of PTSD, where the individual is on high alert,s canning his/her environment for signs that another traumatizing event may happen. here we look at this symptom in a bit more depth.

Avoidance of places, people and situations that remind the individual of the trauma is a classic symptoms of PTSD as is the numbing of one's emotions etc. Here we look at these 2 symptoms.

There are a range of additional problems that are likely to affect the client with PTSD, in this lecture we explore those additional problems.

Here we look at additional co-occurring problems in PTSD.

Here we begin to look at exactly what kinds of experiences are likely to cause PTSD.

Sometimes traumatic experiences don't always lead to a diagnosis of PTSD, here we explore why.

This is a task for you to complete and will aid the learning process, it is about the link between PTSD and substance abuse.

Here we explore the distinction between primary and secondary trauma.

There are occasions when PTSD is missed (and not correctly diagnosed) or where it is diagnosed, but incorrectly so. In this lecture we explore diagnosis/misdiagnosis.

Why is it that some people experience traumatic events but don't go on to develop PTSD, here we explore aspects of traumatizing events and the individual that affect the likelihood of developing PTSD.

Further exploration of factors that are known to affect the likelihood of developing PTSD.

Here we begin to look at treatments for PTSD that are known to be clinically effective.

Here we specifically look at individual psychotherapy for PTSD.

It should be pointed out that I am not qualified to prescribe or recommend any particular treatments for PTSD, but in this lecture we begin to look at some of the commonly used medicines for treating PTSD. Please recommend the client talks to his/her family medical practitioner for advice on medicines.

Here we look at a set of quality statements that organisations providing care, treatment or support will often have. there is a task for you to complete also.

This is a task where you are asked to carry out 3 pieces of research into the local availability of help, support and interventions for people with PTSD (in your local area).

Here we finish off the course by looking at what the research evidence tells us about the likely prognosis for a person diagnosed with PTSD.