“The rape trial in New York of Harvey Weinstein has reignited controversies that have long surrounded survivors of sexual assault. How reliable can a survivor story be if memories of the assault are riddled with gaps and contradictions? Why wait so long to disclose the attack?…“
Read More“Amid the coronavirus pandemic, people everywhere are adjusting to a new normal. As we're all experiencing, the stress of these adjustments certainly differ from our regular day-to-day stress. And for those living with trauma, there's a very real possibility their symptoms could get worse under the current circumstances…”
“The lessons we must learn from prior pandemic and disaster research…”
Read More“Each year, millions of Americans are exposed to major traumatic events. Family violence, sexual violence, natural disasters, or surviving a deadly accident or incident are an unfortunately common experiences in our modern lives. Coping in the aftermath can often be challenging, and many survivors live every day with symptoms of traumatic stress.
As a PTSD specialist, the most common complaints trauma survivors bring to me are sleep disturbances. Careful attention to correcting these disturbances is integral to healing in the aftermath of trauma…”
“Primary prevention of trauma is not always possible, and PTSD researchers have ventured into the realm of secondary prevention as a result. Secondary prevention intervenes in the window of time after trauma exposure but before the onset of PTSD, an opportunity to strike before it’s too late. This window of time has come to be referred to as the golden hours, a time during which medical intervention could set a pathway toward recovery…”
Read More“How the brain handles the traumatic experience of sexual abuse explains why the testimony of survivors can be at once vivid, vague and disjointed…”
Read More“More than half of Americans will say that, at some point in their lives, they have lived through a major trauma during which their life was threatened, they were rendered helpless, and their sense of normalcy shattered…”
Read More“Earlier this month, the Food and Drug Administration approved a nasal spray version of the drug Ketamine, named Spravato (esketamine), for use as a supplement to oral antidepressants taken by adults living with treatment-resistant depression…”
Read More“Preventive psychiatry, a forgotten chapter in the history of mental health, is trying to make a comeback. One area in which it is being explored is post-traumatic stress disorder. This condition represents an excellent opportunity for prevention because of the so-called golden hours: the period between experiencing a traumatic event and the onset of PTSD. It represents a window of opportunity for medical intervention to set the brain on a path toward recovery…”
Read More“Working with the mentally ill requires a unique form of bravery. One must be willing to wade into the intimate and dark recesses of people’s psyches in order to help them even when it gets messy. I knew the man’s psychiatrist to be a professional, intelligent and sensitive doctor. My hunch was this: The patient’s marriage break-up was so impossible for him to accept that he needed someone else to bear the brunt of his shame and rage…”
Read More“Last Fall, when news cycles filled with sexual harassment scandals from the worlds of Hollywood, media and politics something surreal happened. For the first time that I can recall, conversations about sexual trauma were overflowing well beyond the narrow confines of my clinic room. They were showing up in conversations with friends at dinner, with family members both young and old, social media streams and the table of contents of prestigious medical journals…”
Read More“Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has been described as a disorder of memory. It has become quite apparent that there are two types of memory in PTSD: the first being the involuntary intrusions of the trauma, and the second being the voluntarily recalled memories that constitute the trauma story, also known as the trauma narrative…”
Read More“In 2007, the Veterans Affairs (VA) health system started an initiative to integrate primary care with mental health services and developed PC-MHI programs nationwide. Along with integration of care, the goals were to improve access to mental health care, provide high-quality mental health care, enhance treatment adherence, promote an accepting atmosphere for patients, and reserve mental health specialty settings for treatment of more severe mental illness. In fact, to “develop a collaborative care model for mental health disorders that elevates mental health care to the same level of urgency/intervention as medical health care” is a goal embedded in the VA’s 2004 Mental Health Strategic Plan…”
Read More“I am frequently asked to talk about PTSD to professional audiences and, without exception, always get a post talk question asking about my experience with some experimental intervention that someone read about somewhere in a newsmagazine or heard about from the T.V….”
Read More“In 1999, during my residency in Liverpool, England, I had the experience of observing a supervising psychiatrist make a home visit to a severely mentally ill patient and arrange for her involuntary hospitalization, a process referred to in England as sectioning1. I was greatly impressed at the time with the skill, clinical acumen, empathy, and sensitivity involved in carrying out such a decision…”
Read More“I try to stay in this moment: Dave, my patient, is telling me about his Saturday trip to the mall. His cheeks are slightly red with the heat of jubilation, and his voice is louder than usual, propelled by a mixture of excitement and disbelief. In the drafty space of my tiny office, he spills the details of his expedition: he had navigated the flow of human traffic from JC Penney to Sears and from Old Navy to the men’s bathroom without becoming drenched in sweat—some flutters in his chest of course, but no more heart-thumping panic. Instead of reflexive rage and verbal threats, the accidental brushing of shoulders or treading on toes he had tolerated with a no-worries attitude. His brain had not translated the hustle and bustle of a holiday crowd as danger; a man wearing a backpack did not imply a suicide bomber; and unattended shopping bags were no longer harbingers of death. The fused aroma of fresh-baked pizza, cinnamon pretzels, and salty French fries wafting from the food court was, once again, enticing. The thwack of our high five that marks the end of this session—this sound I try to retain…”
“A standard part of any psychiatric evaluation involves inquiring about a patient’s sleep. Hidden in the answers that follow the basic question of, ‘How are you sleeping?’ are the clues that are needed to diagnose what is ailing the patient seeking help from me…”
Read More“Recent research, published in the June edition of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, presented findings which appeared to support what many of us, who spend our days treating those living with PTSD, long suspected: a fascinating correlation between the health of the mind/brain and its direct impact on one’s physical wellbeing…”
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