Measuring trauma: considerations for assessing complex and non-PTSD Criterion A childhood trauma

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...

Mental and physical health-related functioning mediates between psychological job demands and sickness absence among nurses

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...

Mineralocorticoid receptor and heat shock protein expression levels in peripheral lymphocytes from war trauma-exposed men with and without PTSD

Alterations in the number and functional status of mineralocorticoid (MR) and glucocorticoid receptors (GR) may contribute to vulnerability to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Corticosteroid receptors are chaperoned by heat shock proteins Hsp90 and Hsp70. We examined relations between corticosteroid receptor and heat shock protein expression levels, and related them with war trauma exposure...

Intimate Partner Violence and Mental Health

Intimate partner violence is highly prevalent globally, which presents worrisome implications for mental health. As explained by the World Health Organization, women who are abused have higher rates of both suicidal ideation and suicide attempts than other women (World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). Our previous research has found that one in six women presenting to an orthopedic trauma clinic...

Intimate partner violence and mental health - Remarks from two Chief Editors on a joint publishing venture

The World Health Organization (WHO) recently estimated that one out of every three women will experience physical or sexual violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence by a non-partner during her lifetime (Abrahams et al., 2014, Devries et al., 2013). Both men and women can be victims as well as perpetrators of IPV, and pregnancy does not prevent it from occurring. Intimate partner...

Intranasal oxytocin as strategy for medication-enhanced psychotherapy of PTSD: salience processing and fear inhibition processes

About ten percent of people experiencing a traumatic event will subsequently develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is characterized by an exaggerated fear response which fails to extinguish over time and cannot be inhibited in safe contexts. The neurobiological correlates of PTSD involve enhanced salience processing (i.e. amygdala, dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC) and...

Impaired right inferior frontal gyrus response to contextual cues in male veterans with PTSD during response inhibition

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is often associated with impaired fear inhibition and decreased safety cue processing, however, studies capturing the cognitive aspect of inhibition and contextual cue processing are limited. In this fMRI study, the role of contextual cues in response inhibition was investigated

Injured body, injured soul? Predicting and preventing posttraumatic stress disorder after injury

Traumatic injury is common and may have a major impact on the survivor’s life. In the Netherlands alone, over 7 million injuries are registered yearly, caused by accidents in traffic, at home, at work, or by interpersonal violence. Besides physical recovery, survivors often deal with the psychological impact. Although most are resilient and show a natural psychological recovery within the first...

Harmless Identities: Representations of Racial Consciousness among Three Generations Indo-Europeans

I wish to introduce the topic of racial consciousness with some words about a Dutch author born in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies: Hella S. Haasse. When she passed away in September 2011 at the age of 93, all obituaries affirmed she wasone of the most-respected and admired modern novelists, whose vivid and lively evocations of life in the former colony of the Dutch East Indies have...

Faces, feelings, words: Divergence across channels of emotional responding in complicated grief

Recent evidence suggests that the inability to respond in a context appropriate manner earlier in bereavement is predictive of a protracted grief course with poorer adjustment following the loss (Coifman & Bonanno, 2010). However, little is known about the emotional behavior of adults later in bereavement and whether emotional responding becomes dsyregulated across other channels. An...

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