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PTSD, Anxiety, and Disordered Attachment
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is listed in the DSM IV as an Anxiety Disorder, and rightfully so. But trauma as a source of anxiety is also a frequent component of disordered attachment, except that trauma here is from the cumulative effects of early neglect and abuse, rather than the shock of...
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Find Your Center: PTSD and Yoga
More than 5,000 years ago, yoga was developed in the Northern part of India. Who would have predicted that this tradition can bring healing to war veterans and sexual abuse victims, alike, in 2010? Yoga has been a part of the Western lifestyle for the last 40 years, and it has become more and...
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NIMH, Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs Join Forces on PTSD Research
NIMH supports a wide-ranging program of research on PTSD, aimed at helping people and communities cope with the effects of traumatic events and preventing lasting mental health consequences. Although the institute’s research encompasses different populations and types of trauma, one area of...
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Bridging Clinical and Research Frontiers in the Treatment of PTSD
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating stress-related psychiatric condition associated with significant psychiatric comorbidity, functional impairment, compromised health status, early mortality, and substantial economic costs to society. Despite the efficacy of...
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Posttraumatic Growth: Positive Psychological Changes After Trauma
After a trauma, victims, their loved ones and the professional community are often concerned with the subsequent psychological and physical ramifications. There is a plethora of research that documents the deleterious effects of trauma. While it is only natural to want to understand the damaging...
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New York to Develop Strategies to Assist Returning Veterans and Their Families
Governor David A. Paterson recently announced that New York was one of nine states and one territory that participated in the National Policy Academy for returning veterans; a public-private collaborative aimed at developing strategies to improve services provided to returning veterans needing...
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How Will They Tell Their Story? PTSD and Substance Use Disorder
A few years ago, while visiting a substance abuse treatment program, I was discussing treatment protocols with the Clinic Director. A case was brought up in which the woman patient clearly had a history of traumatic abuse. When I asked how the program addressed these issues, the Director replied,...
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Helping Children Come to Terms with Sexual Abuse
The classic definition of “trauma” provided by Bessel Vander Kolk (1987) includes both the dramatic nature of an event as well as the individual’s ability to cope. Despite our capacity to survive and adapt, trauma can alter one’s psychological, biological and social equilibrium to such a...
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From Da Nang to Baghdad: Treating Combat PTSD
In 1971 I was assigned to the 98th Medical Detachment, KO Team, one of two specialized, 28 man units made up of psychiatrists, a social work officer, nurses, and para-professional enlisted specialists in social work and neuropsychiatric procedures to assess and treat psychiatric casualties and drug...
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Columbia Trauma and PTSD Program: Vital Research and Treatment for Veterans
Those of us who have not had the misfortune of enduring war find it difficult to understand. Popular culture is rife with images of warfare, but nothing in civilian life actually compares to the experiences of combat. Combat stress includes not only the constant threat of injury and death, the...
