Psychological trauma can have devastating consequences on emotion regulatory capacities and lead to dissociative processes that provide subjective detachment from overwhelming emotional experience during and in the aftermath of trauma. Dissociation is a complex phenomenon that comprises a host of symptoms and factors, including depersonalization, derealization, time distortion, dissociative flashbacks, and alterations in the perception of the self. Dissociation occurs in up to two thirds of patients with borderline personality disorder (BPD).

Traumatic exposure is a common experience among children and may have severe and long lasting effects on child’s mental well-being and development. This dissertation reports on children who have been exposed to one or more potentially traumatic events during their lives and focuses on identifying those children suffering from psychological trauma. The results presented in this thesis expand current knowledge with regard to the definition of a traumatic event and the different traumatic stress profiles between single trauma and child maltreatment.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a chronic psychiatric disorder characterized by intrusive re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance behaviors, elevated arousal, and changes in cognition and mood. Nearly all individuals with PTSD suffer from at least one additional psychiatric diagnosis. Prolonged exposure is one of several evidence-based treatments for PTSD that has been efficacious for PTSD sufferers with a range of comorbid disorders. In this review, we first discuss the prevalence of PTSD comorbidity and the challenges that it presents to clinicians working with traumatized patients.

A substantial body of research shows that adverse life experiences contribute to both psychological and biomedical pathology. Twenty-four randomized controlled trials support the positive effects of eye movement desensitization and reprocessing therapy in the treatment of emotional trauma and other adverse life experiences relevant to clinical practice. Twelve randomized studies of the eye movement component noted rapid decreases in negative emotions and/or vividness of disturbing images