PTSD in Late Life : Special Issues

PTSD in late life can result from trauma that occurred much earlier or can follow traumatic events that occurred for the first time in old age. When trauma took place when the person was younger, PTSD in later life might represent the re-emergence after a period of extended quiescence or be the continuation of a chronic disorder experienced throughout adult life. DSM-5 criteria for the diagnosis of PTSD in older adults are no different from those for other age groups, with the exception of modified criteria for preschool children aged 6 years or younger.

Genetic variant in CACNA1C is associated with PTSD in traumatized police officers

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating psychiatric disorder that may develop after a traumatic event. Here we aimed to identify epigenetic and genetic loci associated with PTSD. We included 73 traumatized police officers with extreme phenotypes regarding symptom severity despite similar trauma history: n = 34 had PTSD and n = 39 had minimal PTSD symptoms.

Exploration of the Associations between Responses to Affective States and Psychopathology in Two Samples of People Confronted with the Loss of a Loved One

Abstract:

 

Adaptive regulation of positive and negative affect after the loss of a loved one may foster recovery. In two studies, using similar methods but different samples, we explored the association between positive (i.e., dampening and enhancing) and negative (i.e., rumination) affect regulation strategies and symptoms levels of postloss psychopathology.

Bayesian PTSD-Trajectory Analysis with Informed Priors Based on a Systematic Literature Search and Expert Elicitation

ABSTRACT

 

There is a recent increase in interest of Bayesian analysis. However, little effort has been made thus far to directly incorporate background knowledge via the prior distribution into the analyses.

Traumatic stress and accelerated DNA methylation age : A meta-analysis

Abstract

 

 

Background

Recent studies examining the association between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and accelerated aging, as defined by DNA methylation-based estimates of cellular age that exceed chronological age, have yielded mixed results.

Methods

Finding a new narrative : Meaningful responses to ‘false memory’ disinformation

This chapter draws from George Monbiot’s (2017) thoughts on the political power of storytelling. He emphasizes that stories function as schema through which people organize information and develop a sense of order and purpose. It is a mistake, he warns, to try to rely on data to challenging a misleading story since ‘[t]he only thing that can displace a story is a story’ (Monbiot, 2017, p 3). In short, information is not sufficient to challenge disinformation: we must also supply a meaningful framework in which that information makes sense.

Development and Evaluation of the Thinking About Recovery Scale : Measure of Parent Posttraumatic Cognitions Following Children's Exposure to Trauma

Researchers have recently suggested that parent posttraumatic appraisals potentially contribute to the development of posttraumatic stress in both parents and children following children's exposure to trauma. However, a single‐instrument, multidimensional measure of parent posttraumatic cognitions as they relate to their child's recovery has yet to be operationalized.

Mental Health Problems Among Whistleblowers: A Comparative Study

Whistleblowers play a very important and indispensable role in society and health care sector, but their act may elicit retaliation and other negative effects, which may impact their mental health.

Resolving the vulnerability paradox in the cross-national prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder

Socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals are at heightened risk for developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following exposure to trauma. Yet a study of cross-national lifetime prevalence rates of PTSD revealed that countries scoring high on an index reflecting cultural and socioeconomic disadvantage exhibited lower rates of PTSD in response to trauma, evincing what the authors called “a vulnerability paradox in the cross-national prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder” Dückers, Alisic, & Brewin (2016a, p. 300).

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