Psychotic symptoms, coercive interventions, and other negative treatment experiences have been found to lead to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. However, prior research has not examined the importance of the DSM-IV A1 (perception of threat) and A2 (negative emotion at time of event) criteria for a traumatic event due to a psychotic episode.

The general aim of this thesis was to examine how nurses can use photography to assist psychiatric patients in making meaning of experiences of illness and to help them in the process of recovery. The study is based on a hermeneutic-phenomenological perspective, focusing on processes of experiencing and meaning making in the life world. Existential issues, e.g. the way how people give meaning to their suffering, play an important role in this process of being-in-the world.

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with enhanced noradrenergic activity. Animal and human studies demonstrate that noradrenergic stimulation augments consolidation of fear learning. Retrieval of well-established memories by presenting a learned fear cue triggers reconsolidation processes during which memories may be updated, weakened, or strengthened. We previously reported that noradrenergic blockade in the rat amygdala impairs reconsolidation of fear memories. Here we investigated the effects of noradrenergic enhancement on reconsolidation of learned fear.

Clinically depressed individuals have consistently been shown to demonstrate a bias for overgeneral autobiographical memory (ABM) disclosure, a strategy used to protect against the access of intense, primary emotions that may accompany specific memories. The present study examined how ABM specificity in client narratives was related to expressed emotional arousal in brief emotion-focused and client-centred psychotherapy for depression.