] ]
 
] ] ]
]
Welcome Guest ] ]
Name:
Pass:
Auto Login
Add me to Active Users list
Yes  No

Forgot password? | Register
]
] ]

] ] ]
]
Site Navigation
 ]
] ]

] ] ]
]
Change Skin ] ]



Skins Found: 3
]
] ]

  
] ] ]
]
Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD)

Burn injuries are of sufficient severity to meet the Stressor Criterion for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) of the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. This disorder is defined as one caused by exposure to a traumatic event outside the range of human experience and that would be markedly distressing to almost anyone.xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

 

For the burned child, how she adjusts determines if she is at risk of post-traumatic stress developing. PTSD is much more common a year after injury than during the time in hospital.

 

Increasing attention has been given to factors that predict post-traumatic stress following burns. After discharge, burn victims respond to stressors, including pain, disfigurement and functional limitations, which can impede adjustment.

Continuous Stress

 

During this phase PTSD is associated with disfigurement and low self-esteem, avoidant coping style and poor social support. Some psychologists think burns patients have Continuous Stress Disorder, rather than PTSD, and say it has three phases: the event itself; an extremely difficult period of hospitalization and a new encounter with the social environment, with all its concomitant difficulties.

 

Psychic trauma is when an individual is exposed to an overwhelming event resulting in helplessness in the face of intolerable danger and instinctual arousal. Children suffering from psychic trauma resulting in a traumatic state of regression and helplessness, exhibit paralysis and immobilization, ranging from numbness to an emotional storm; disorganized feelings, thoughts and behavior and physical symptoms reflecting autonomic dysfunction. (The autonomic nervous system is responsible for control of bodily functions that are not consciously directed, like regular beating of the heart, sweating, salivating.)

 

Children can look panicky and submissive or can show frenzied over-activity, tantrums, rage or shock-like, stunned reaction and unresponsiveness, symptoms that could be linked to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

 

 

Re-living the burn

 

The way in which children are affected by post-traumatic stress affects their learning, behavior and progress. A child with post-traumatic stress has at least one re­-experiencing symptom: intrusive recollections of the event, distressing dreams about the event, sudden activity or feeling as if the event were recurring and intense physiological distress when exposed to events that symbolize the event.

 

Children’s post-traumatic stress includes daydreams, fantasies, nightmares and behavioral changes linked to sudden sights or sounds that may remind children of the traumatic event.

 

Post-traumatic behavior in pre-school children can include withdrawal, denial, anxious attachment and regression. In younger school age children: performance decline, behavior and mood changes, psychosomatic complaints, and in older school-age children/adolescents: low self-esteem, displaced anger and pre­occupation with themselves.

 

 

Timing of Traumas

 

Traumas occurring during a specific developmental stage creates special vulnerability for the child, by not enabling successful resolution during that stage and leaving the child less able to resolve future issues successfully. The trauma produces anxiety, lack of psychological equilibrium and attempts at coping with this anxiety can block successful mastering of developmental tasks.

 

An important developmental concern is the interplay of the processes of trauma resolution and other childhood tasks. After psychic trauma in childhood, schoolwork, play and interpersonal relationships are hampered. The child’s growing ability to take an active role in dealing with changes in current life circumstances, may be eroded by traumatic anxiety. When there is continued reworking of traumatic memories, it can also have long-term effects on the child’s ability to learn and understand.
]
] ]
Page Created By: Gary (admin) 08 July 2004 3:26pm
Page Last Modified: 21 July 2004 1:31am

] ] ]
]
Powered by SOOP Portal Raven 1.0b
]
] ]

Sitemap
Burn Support Online Partners