Reliving the Nightmare: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Essay examples -

Reliving the Nightmare Post-Traumatic Stress DisorderAfter the terrorist attacks on September 11th, horrific images of the towers collapsing, survivors fleeing, and the rescue and recovery efforts inundated television viewers. In the weeks future(a) the attacks, numerous news accounts reported increasing general fretfulness among Americans, with many individuals reporting sleep difficulties and trouble concentrating. Additionally, much attention focused on the cause on those who directly witnessed and/or were injured the attacks, and whether they would suffer from post traumatic stress disorder, also known as posttraumatic stress disorder (4). I will dampen a brief overview of the definition of posttraumatic stress disorder, the neurobiology behind it, and what environmental factors may put certain people at heightened risk for developing the disorder. Post traumatic stress-disorder is an anxiety disorder which results from exposure to an event which threatens the physical safety of an individual (1). PTSD originated as a mental illness category after the Vietnam War, when veterans exhibited sets of symptoms that did not survive into any current illness categories. However, in previous wars soldiers had complained of shell shock or combat fatigue, which researchers now believe were essentially the same conditions as PTSD (2). As many as thirty percent of Vietnam veterans and eight percent of Persian Gulf War veterans exhibited symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (1).Today the definition of PTSD has broadened to include not just those in combat, but people who have experienced any man-made or natural disasters, accidents, violent crime such as rape, and abuse. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares, depression, anxiety, sleep problems, emotional detachment, ... ...ic events, as well as the co-occurrence of PTSD with other mental illnesses.WWW Sources1)National Institute of intellectual Health information sheet on PTSD.http//www.nimh.nih.gov/p ublicat/reliving.cfm2)About.com website , On PTSD, with definitions and links to other web resources.http//mentalhealth.about.com/cs/traumaptsd/a/trauma.htm3) Surgeon Generals Report Mental Health- Culture, Race, Ethnicity . A extension to Mental Health A Report of the Surgeon General 1999.http//www.mentalhealth.org/cre/default.asp4) Scientific American . Article on September 11th and PTSD.http//www.sciam.com/missing.cfm5) Cal State-Chico website on serotonin.http//www.csuchico.edu/psy/BioPsych/serotonin.htm6)Anxiety Disorders Treatment pit Amygdala Circuitry from the ADAA 18th annual meeting. http//www.nimh.nih.gov/events/pranxst.htm