Background Traumatic stress does not only increase the risk for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), but is also associated with adverse secondary physical health outcomes. Despite increasing efforts, we only begin to understand the underlyingbiomolecular processes. The hypothesisfree assessment of a wide range of metabolites (termed metabolite profiling) might contribute to the discovery of...

Pas in 2006 werd wereldwijd voor mensen met een psychische stoornis het recht erkend tot volledige deelname aan het maatschappelijke leven. De desbetreffende Conventie die toen werd aanvaard door de Verenigde Naties, verbiedt discriminatie in hun burgerlijk, politiek, maatschappelijk, cultureel en economisch leven. Dat dit maar zo kort geleden is, wordt niet minder verbazing­wekkend door de in...

To investigate whether health-related functioning mediates the effect of psychological job demands on sickness absence in nurses. Nurses face high job demands that can have adverse health effects resulting in sickness absence. Prospective cohort study with 1-year follow-up. Data for 2964 Norwegian nurses were collected in the period 2008-2010. At baseline, psychological job demands were measured...

This qualitative study examines veterans' meanings of peacekeeping in Cambodia. In-depth interviews were conducted among 19 veterans. Purposive sampling distinguished between veterans with and without stress responses. Thematic analysis showed that peacekeeping reflected a different reality in which military performance and comradeship provided clear sense and direction. A sense of fulfillment...

In the Netherlands, 81% of the general population experiences at least one potentially traumatic event in their life, such as a traffic accident, assault, rape, or disaster. Around 7% of people fulfill the criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder at some point during their life. Certain details of the traumatic experience, such as the rifle of a gun, are remembered extensively by these...

In the past few decades, thousands of new memorials to executed witches, victims of terrorism, and dead astronauts, along with those that pay tribute to civil rights, organ donors, and the end of Communism have dotted the American landscape. Equally ubiquitous, though until now less the subject of serious inquiry, are temporary memorials: spontaneous offerings of flowers and candles that...

The current definition of a traumatic event in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013) may be too narrow to describe the myriad of difficult childhood experiences. Furthermore, youth may develop a distinct pattern of symptoms in relation to complex or multiple childhood trauma experiences, the proposed developmental...

Despite the widely accepted belief that meaning making is essential for mental health following adversity, the available research continues to provide mixed findings: meaning making is sometimes evident, sometimes not, and more frequently than we would expect associated with poor health outcomes. The papers that comprise this special issue of Memory put flesh to those bones by approaching the...