Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Research Papers

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When faced with extreme stress and trauma, there is likely to always be a negative psychological reaction, however, posttraumatic stress disorder is far more extreme than a temporary reaction. Posttraumatic stress disorder can occur at any time after a traumatic experience, such as combat, natural disaster, or victimization. It is characterized by symptoms of persistent reliving of the traumatic event, pronounced physical reactions when reminded of the events, significant upset when exposed to trauma-linked cues, dissociative experiences such as flashbacks, recurring trauma-linked dreams, numbness, avoidance, hyperarousal, and negative thoughts, mood, and feelings for a time longer than one month. If such symptoms occur for a
There are a clearly a great number of symptoms related to posttraumatic stress disorder, which can lead to difficulty in pinning down exactly what it is. A person suffering from PTSD could experience any of these symptoms or all of them. A deeper understanding of PTSD comes through understanding stress responses in general. When a stressor is present, the sympathetic nervous system or hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal pathway takes over and causes various physiological responses. Stress hormones are released and arousal and fear responses result.
Extreme stressors can actually result in changes in the brain and cause abnormal norepinephrine and cortisol activity. There are also potential genetic links to PTSD, as