ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre

The need for research to advance scientific understanding must be balanced with ensuring the rights and wellbeing of participants are safeguarded, with some research topics posing more ethical quandaries for researchers than others. Moral injury is one such topic. Exposure to potentially morally injurious experiences can lead to significant distress, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and selfinjury. In this article, we discuss how the rapid expansion of research in the field of moral injury could threaten the wellbeing, dignity and integrity of participants.

Introduction:
Societies invest substantial amounts of resources on disaster preparedness of hospitals. However, the concept is not clearly defined nor operationalized in the international literature.

Aim:

This review aims to systematically assess definitions and operationalizations of disaster preparedness in hospitals, and to develop an all-encompassing model, incorporating different perspectives on the subject.

Methods:

Importance:  First responders are at risk for developing symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Little is known about the risk factors for developing PTSD during a years-long period after complex mass disasters.

Objective:  To explore the long-term course of PTSD symptoms and to identify risk factors and their relative association with PTSD among first responders dispatched to the 2011 Japanese earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear disaster.

Correction to: Pilot and Feasibility Studies 6, 69 (2020) https://doi.org/10.1186/s40814-020-00613-1 

Following publication of the original article [1], the authors reported an error in the following sentence: 

Studies into TFT for non-refugee traumatized populations show higher effects (d = 1.08—1.40) [7], than for refugee populations (g = .25—1.01) [8].

Which will be replaced by: 

Body dissatisfaction (BD) is highly prevalent among young females and is associated with negative mental health outcomes. Social anxiety (SA) has been identified as an important determinant of BD; however, potential factors underlying SA-related BD remain unstudied. Research indicates that intolerance of uncertainty (IU), the tendency to respond negatively to uncertainty, may be critical for developing and maintaining SA.

Background: A novel intervention, Multi-modular motion-assisted memory desensitization and reconsolidation (3MDR), aims to reduce avoidance and improve engagement for patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who did not sufficiently respond to previous treatments. It has been found to effectively reduce PTSD symptoms for veterans with treatment-resistant PTSD. Symptomatic measures alone might not capture all treatment effects, and addition of qualitative outcomes may provide deeper understanding of treatment processes and treatment-induced changes.

Background: Traumatic sexual experiences can negatively affect sexual functioning and increase pelvic floor activity in women, especially when post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is developed. However, little is known about the effect of other types of interpersonal and non-interpersonal, traumatic experiences on sexual function and pelvic floor overactivity. 

Background

Exposure to traumatic stress increases the odds of developing a broad range of psychiatric conditions. Genetic studies targeting multiple stress-related quantitative phenotypes may shed light on mechanisms underlying vulnerability to psychopathology in the aftermath of stressful events. We applied a multivariate genome-wide association study (GWAS) to a unique military cohort (N=583) in which we measured biochemical and behavioral phenotypes.

COVID-19 affects many societies by measures as "social distancing", forcing mental health care professionals to deliver treatments online or via telephone. In this context, online Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is an emerging treatment for patients with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).