Prevention and treatment of PTSD : the current evidence base

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a common condition that affects millions of people across the world. Up to date recommendations based on the best available evidence are vital to prevent and treat this debilitating condition. In this issue, we are bringing together a series of systematic reviews and meta-analyses that underpinned the development of the 2018 International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Guidelines.

 

Evaluating Crisis Communication : A 30-item Checklist for Assessing Performance during COVID-19 and Other Pandemics

The primary objective of this paper is to propose a conceptual checklist to assess crisis communication efforts during pandemics and in their aftermath. No consolidated checklist exists for assessing the effectiveness of crisis communication at all levels during pandemics.

 

Dampening of positive affect is associated with posttraumatic stress following stressful life events

Background: Treatments for posttraumatic stress (PTS) are effective for many but not all people. There is a continued need to further our understanding of psychological mechanisms involved in the development and maintenance of PTS. Research has examined dysregulation of negative affect (NA) in PTS but relatively little attention has been paid to the role of dysregulation of positive affect (PA) in PTS.

 

Effect of Prolonged Exposure, intensified Prolonged Exposure and STAIR+Prolonged Exposure in patients with PTSD related to childhood abuse : a randomized controlled trial

Background: It is unclear whether the evidence-based treatments for PTSD are as effective in patients with CA-PTSD.

 

Objective: We aimed to investigate the effectiveness of three variants of prolonged exposure therapy.

 

Cognitive Therapy for Moral Injury in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Moral injury is the profound psychological distress which can arise following participating in, or witnessing, events which transgress an individual’s morals and include harming, betraying, or failure to help others, or being subjected to such events, e.g. being betrayed by leaders. It has been primarily researched in the military, but it also found in other professionals such as healthcare workers coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and civilians following a wide range of traumas.

 

Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change : A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response?

Abstract:

 

The perception of the impact of climate change on the environment is becoming a lived experience for more and more people. Several new terms for climate change-induced distress have been introduced to describe the long-term emotional consequences of anticipated or actual environmental changes, with ecological grief as a prime example.

 

Cortical volume abnormalities in posttraumatic stress disorder : an ENIGMA-psychiatric genomics consortium PTSD workgroup mega-analysis

Studies of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report volume abnormalities in multiple regions of the cerebral cortex.

Efficacy of immersive PTSD treatments : A systematic review of virtual and augmented reality exposure therapy and a meta-analysis of virtual reality exposure therapy

Background: Virtual reality exposure therapy (VRET) and augmented reality exposure therapy (ARET) are digitally assisted psychotherapies that potentially enhance posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment by increasing a patient’s sense of presence during exposure therapy. This study aimed to systematically review current evidence regarding the efficacy of VRET and ARET as PTSD treatment.

 

Moral Injury in Health-Care Workers During COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic forces frontline health-care workers to make difficult medical decisions that may result in moral injury. Understanding the extent to which physicians, nurses, and other health-care workers experience moral injury while working in a pandemic is of critical importance to establish preventative measures and trauma-informed treatment. A national sample of health-care workers (n = 109) participated in the study.

 

Posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) across ten countries : Global validation of the PTG-PTD theoretical model

This study examined the relationships between posttraumatic growth (PTG) and posttraumatic depreciation (PTD) across 10 countries and assessed the factorial invariance of the standardized inventory assessing PTG and PTD, the PTGDI-X, the expansion of the PTGI-X (Tedeschi et al., 2017).

 

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