ARQ National Psychotrauma Centre

BackgroundAmong injury victims relatively high prevalence rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have been found. PTSD is associated with functional impairments and decreased health-related quality of life (HRQoL). Previous studies that addressed the latter were restricted to injuries at the higher end of the severity spectrum. This study examined the association between PTSD symptoms and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in a comprehensive population of injury patients of all severity levels and external causes.

Objectives Policing is generally considered a high-risk profession for the development of mental health problems, but this assumption lacks empirical evidence. Research question of the present study is to what extent mental health disturbances, such as (very) severe symptoms of anxiety, depression and hostility are more prevalent among police officers than among other occupational groups. Design Multicomparative cross-sectional study using the data of several cross-sectional and longitudinal studies in the Netherlands.

At present post-disaster activities and plans seem to vary widely. An adequate estimation of the availability of post-disaster psychosocial services across Europe is needed in order to compare them with recently developed evidence-informed psychosocial care guidelines. Here we report on the results of a cross-sectional web-based survey completed in 2008 by two hundred and eighty-six representatives of organizations involved in psychosocial responses to trauma and disaster from thirty-three different countries across Europe.

Several lines of research have demonstrated that memories for fearful events become transiently labile upon re-exposure. Activation of molecular mechanisms is required in order to maintain retrieved information. This process is called reconsolidation. Targeting reconsolidation - as in exposure-based psychotherapy - offers therefore a potentially interesting tool to manipulate fear memories, and subsequently to treat disorders such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Background: Stress sensitization, i.e., increased responsiveness to stressful life events has been found in high trauma exposed adults within the first 18 months following trauma exposure (Smid et al., 2012) as well as in young children (Grasso, Ford, & Briggs-Gowan, 2012). However, it is unclear whether stress sensitization may persist over time. We hypothesized that soldiers exposed to high levels of early life trauma would be at risk of persistence of stress sensitization 2 years following deployment.

Mental Health support (MHS) is an integral part of the whole chain of events within militaryorganizations. Several countries are delivering this support for troops that are active in the currentoperation in Afghanistan (ISAF). Between 2009-2010 TNO Defense, Safety and Security, part of theNetherlands Organization of Applied Scientific Research (TNO), executed a project named Assessment ofOrganization and Execution of Current Practices of Deployment-related MH Support (DRMHS).

INTRODUCTION: Care for battle casualties demands special skills from surgeons and anesthesiologists. The experiences of Dutch military surgeons and anesthesiologists that deployed to South Afghanistan provided an opportunity to evaluate predeployment training and preparation of military medical specialistsMETHOD: A survey was conducted among all surgeons and anesthesiologists (n = 40) that deployed to South Afghanistan between February 2006 and November 2010.

We sadly lost our friend and colleague Edward J. (“Fast Eddie”) Frischholz, PhD, at the young age of 58. He died of heart failure, a complication of septic shock. He was a passionate advocate for the field of hypnosis, a tough monitor of its quality, a fine clinician, and an excellent researcher/statistician.

BackgroundPosttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been associated with neurocognitive deficits, such as impaired verbal memory and executive functioning. Less is known about executive function and the role of comorbid depression in PTSD.