June is National PTSD Awareness Month
June 8, 2012 | 
Author You might be wondering what an announcement about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) awareness is doing on a blog about palliative care. While many think of PTSD as a disorder experienced primarily by younger adults, it can be an issue in late life and palliative care as well. Some symptoms experienced as part of a serious illness (such as dyspnea) may echo experiences associated with a traumatic incident and reactivate PTSD. There is also some evidence that ICU admissions are associated with later development of PTSD.
Signs of PTSD include (from the American Psychological Association DSM-IV-TR):
- Exposure to a traumatic event that included actual or threatened death or serious injury and that was met with a response of “intense fear, helplessness, or horror”
- And symptoms from each of the following categories:
- Intrusive recollections of event
- Numb affect or avoidance of people/activities/thoughts/places that remind one of the traumatic event
- Hyper-arousal
A diagnosis of PTSD may be made if the symptoms last for at least a month and cause significant impairment in a person’s daily life.
What can be done about PTSD?
There are effective non-pharmacologic therapies for PTSD, which is encouraging in a palliative care setting where polypharmacy risks may be a concern. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one of the most promising types of non-pharmacologic therapy for PTSD. Other therapies that may be beneficial for patients with PTSD include eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) and relaxation training.
Where to go for more information:
National Center for PTSD: www.ptsd.va.gov
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