Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - Essay Example

Cognitive behavioral therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder by The issue of post-traumatic stress disorder has risen to one percent when it comes to the general population. Post-traumatic disorder (PTSD) is a condition where one experiences repeated distressing memories, flashbacks and other symptoms that come after suffering or witnessing a traumatic event. The treatment of PTSD includes non-medicinal treatments which include cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). Another method of PTSD is antidepressant medication. The treatment methods that are used nowadays cannot be compared with the past treatment methods. In the past it was not easy since many people did notice the dangers of trauma. Most of the people kept their feelings their selves. Cognitive behavioral therapy is one type of counseling and most of the research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy is the best way to treat PTSD. Half of the people who suffer from the PSTD in most cases continue to suffer the effects of the disorder (victoria 2006) Comorbidity Post-traumatic stress disorder comes up with Psychiatric disorders such as anxiety disorders, depression disorders and much more. The research that has been taken says that in most of the cases where PTSD has been reported there has been has been 3 or more psychiatrist disorders. This is how comorbidity has come in and there has been reported that it has gone to very high levels. There are several ways in the treatment of comorbid disorders. These methods are integrated, sequential, parallel and single diagnosis treatment methods. When the taking into consideration the treatment of the PTSD and the comorbidity it is very possible to find many relations that is between them and also their development and how the treatment impacts them. Treatment for the PTSD comorbidity has got many features one of them been the types of trauma and the design of the trauma (Edna 2010). Psychopharmacology Despite the high comorbidity with the high comorbidity of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and the other disorders that come with it there have been less pharmacotherapy studies. Studies on the matter have said that patients with PTSD and comorbidity respond very well to the standard pharmacotherapies compared to those which do not have comorbidity. Substance Use Disorder Seeking safety: this is coping skills model for PTSD and substance use disorder. This method contains 25 topics and each of the topic talks about the coping skills. This model is designed mostly for a flexibility that is high. It is the model that is believed has been researched in a big way and has got a lot of content in it. It contains a strong diagnosis that is co-occurring with PTSD and contains 12 studied samples that are in the ranges of level A, B and C. Seeking safety is the only co-occurring PSTD model that is there. It has been established to be very effective. The next level of the substance use disorder is the collaborative care which is also classified as level B. it is a multidisciplinary integrated prevention model for the PTSD and the substance use disorder. The model entails motivational interviewing and cognitive behavioral therapy that is CBT. The other level is the concurrent treatment of PTSD and dependence classified in the level c class. This model combines treatment that is efficient for PTSD and substance use disorder. It is a treatment that is integrated and the treatment process in this case takes 16 weeks. In most cases the concurrent treatment has been able to treat PTSD and the substance use disorder. In this case SUD is able to benefit from the exposure treatment of the PTSD. Another important program is the transcend program which is at level c and it involves 12 week hospitalization program of the cognitive behavioral therapy. The program also entailspsychodynamic and twelve step models. It is the only method that has been made just for the hospitalization formation and has also helped so much in the treatment of the PTSD. Trauma empowerment model is also rated at level c. it is a model that is in most cases designed for women who have gone through major tragedies with more complex disorders. The model entails psychoeducation, .the building of skills and peer support. The other model under the substance use disorder is the substance dependence PTSD therapy that lays at level c. it entails a 40 minutes session individual therapy that has got a PTSD and SUD approach. This method has been reported to have helped so much in the treatment. The other model under the substance use disorder is the cognitive –behavioral therapy for the PTSD and it is at level one. The study is done using acceptance and the commitment therapy. The individual is required to go for 96 therapies that happen individually. The patient is expected to recover in about nine months (Steven 2006). Generalized Anxiety Disorder/Major Depressive Disorder Cognitive behavioral therapy for PTSD is ranked at level A and has mostly been applied in the cases that are related to motor vehicles. The survivors in this case are all suffering from the PTSD and comorbid disorders. In comparison between CBT was found to be more superior to the supportive psychotherapy. CBT was found to show greater reduction in major depressive order (MDD) and generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) symptoms than in other conditions. Panic Multi-channel exposure therapy which is classified as level B contains manuals. It entails 12 group models integrating cognitive processing therapy for the PTSD and has got exposure for panic. The multi-channel exposure therapy has got greater reductions in the PTSD and the panic condition. This has really made a lot changes in the depression. Under panic there is sensation reprocessing therapy (SRT) was used mostly by the Southeast Asians. It contains cultural adaptation as part of the teachings that are gotten in the process. The sensation reprocessing therapy (SRT) helped so much in the reducing of PTSD and all the other anxiety symptoms. The other method is CBT for panic disorder plus implosive therapy and in this case the study is done using an approach that is sequential for nine sessions on CBT and for panic disorder and the outcome is reduction in panic but panic treatment has to be used to be able to fight PTSD (Yuval 2009). Obsessive or Compulsive Disorder This entails obsessive – compulsive disorder inpatient treatment at level C. in this case there is examination of behavioral program which has got no modification for PTSD. Patients with PTSD showed outcomes that were not pleasing on the obsessive compulsive disorder treatment program. The researchers came to conclude that the obsessive compulsive disorder is iatrogenic for comorbid PTSD. Borderline Personality Disorder In this case we have got training that goes through various steps. Prolonged exposure or stress inoculation training which is classified as level c. in the research to try and see whether this method is effective and to get to see the outcomes on the borderline personality and the characteristics and the results were good since the patients improved at long last. Psychodynamic imaginative Trauma therapy and EMDR is a study that is classified at level C. This study is known to deal with complex PTSD. There was examination that was taken to verify whether the method was effective. The patients were taken care of for two consecutive months and then discharged and after 8 months they received trauma treatment. Those who completed the treatment on Trauma-focused component improved compared to those who didn’t meaning that PITT is effective (Claudia 2006). Psychotic Disorders The trauma recovery group that is classified in level c is said to be cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) program for PTSD and the serious mental illness. Its components are breathing retraining, Psychoeducation, planning of crisis and personal recovery. For the individual session it takes 12-15 sessions and the group treatment would go for even 20 sessions. In this case the result taken resulted to PTSD and also the Psychiatric symptoms. Serous mental illness is truly an important comorbidity and it should be dealt with seriously. The treatment of PTSD and the comorbid conditions has increased within a short time. In general the treatment has gotten only four treatments that fall under the level A. The CBT, SS, PTSD and MVA survivors. Most treatments either in pharmacological and psychosocial have got only one study and only few have 2. Research shows that seeking safety (SS) is very effective with 12 published studies. It is very important to address the comorbid condition and it needs treatment. Integrated method is the best when it comes to addressing of Comorbid conditions. Though there are other ways of doing this it is the best way. Single diagnosis treatment are noted to be the most treatments that take place but and they have an impact on the comorbid conditions. Patients with PTSD and comorbid conditions can also get pharmacotherapy treatment and also psychosocial treatment at the same time. Almost all the studies that are there touch on the cognitive behavioral therapy based model. The only method that has been noted to have negative outcomes is the behavioral treatment of OCD. The department of health searched the Cochrane database for the reviews in order to gather high quality evidence. The department of health’s review came up with this document in the year 2011. The treatment choice in psychological therapies and counseling department is a document that has got evidence and contains a review of the mental health disorders: depression, anxiety, panic disorder, suicidal behavior, obsessive-compulsive disorder, repetitive self-harm, phobias, personality disorder, chronic pain and fatigue and the gynecological presentations. The review also contained all the established psychotherapeutic modalities. These include cognitive and behavioral treatments. The aim of the Department of health’s review was then to offer evidence on the review and its effectiveness of the psychotherapy and the counseling for the people. It also had to review the evidence and the impact the other factors that were on the therapy outcome. The evidence also included comorbidity, severity, demographics, chronicity, family situation, therapeutic alliance and the attitude to therapy. The review addressed treatments for the adults only and did not lay any emphasis on the children and so it was not able to deliver fully on the entire whole human being race. The health department concluded that there was strong evidence to support the revision and to prove that the psychological therapies were effective in the treatment of depression. The CBT approaches have been approved by many people to be very effective. Statistics say that there has been much endorsement when it comes to some of the methods that are used such as the behavioral therapy is known to very effective. They also say that CBT approaches can be considered to be more effective when compared to the others. The cost effectiveness was not much considered in the research. For the factors that affectthe psychotherapeutic process they were also reviewed in the review (Ehlers 2006). There were also therapies that had no evidence and they were still put in place and they did work. The eclectic, psychodynamic therapies and counseling have not had enough evidence when it comes to research but they have been proven to work. These therapies are so common and they are even recommended by the National Health Service. More recent studies have opted to use the CBT treatment when it comes to residual depressive symptoms. Cognitive therapy is has got a certain indication as maintenance therapy for the recurring and the relapsing depression. The researchers also examined the factors that predicted whether an individual with a major depression would have full or partial response to the medication and the hospitalization that hospitalization that one gets.it was noted that the residual symptoms of depression were noted to have remained in some of the cases. It was noted that not all the patients that are treated would recover with the use of medication method only. Some of them needed other attentions. The group that did not recover on medication only seemed to have a low esteem. The department health guidelines are to secure is to come up with a useful synthesis for the evidence that has been given out in different psychological therapies.In the past most of the services that did deliver the CBT did so within the tertiary or the secondary care situations those do allow the specialists CBT to highly selected patients. CBT offered 12 to 16 one day hour sessions in the specialist units. Another group of specialists disagree with this and they claim that there is no convincing evidence that supports that one requires 1 hour sessions for 12 to 16 weeks. For the obsessive or compulsive problems and the phobic disorders can be treated more quickly using simpler methods such as progressive exposure. These are so much effective (Stanley 2013). Diagnosis in the counseling perspective it is the process of identifying and describing the clinical significant patterns that are associated to the with the clients distress. World Health Organization is an example of a health diagnostic system. Diagnosis is a method for describing and communicating about the client’s presentations. For effective treatment case conceptualization is very much required which is used to evaluate the client’s needs to make sense. Conceptualization skills help the counselor with a framework for his or her work with the clients. Conceptualization can also be taken as method of understanding and observing and integrating the client’s ways of behavior. It involves three steps. The first step that the counselor should take is to evaluate the client’s concern in observing, measuring and assessing the behaviors of the client. The next step is organizing the observations and the assessments and measure the client’s themes and patterns among his or her concerns. The third one is where the therapist selects a theoretical orientation to explain and to interpret and make the judgment on what the client is experiencing. Traumatic events are those events that we term to be dangerous and terrifying and might cause injury or death. After experiencing such an event it is normal to experience post –traumatic stress reactions and one might find it hard to cope. Here are the types of post-traumatic stress. 1. Re-experiencing – in this case is very natural for one to keep re-experiencing the events of the traumatic event. One would go through a lot of thinking and dreaming at first. Re- experiencing is keeping thinking about what happened. It becomes very distressing since one can go through nightmares even during the day and have a lot of flashbacks about the traumatic event. 2. Avoidance is the other type of the post-traumatic stress reaction. Avoidance means when one tries not to think or even talk about the traumatic event and he or she ends up avoiding the places and the people who that remind the victim about the traumatic events. These can end up becoming a bigger problem if not solved 3. Hyper arousal is another type of post-traumatic stress reaction and in this case the victim feels anxious and restless. In this case the victim may have trouble in concentration and may also experience trouble when sleeping. This might cause great change in the normal functioning of the victim. Prolonged exposure therapy is a type of therapy that helps one to decrease the distress of the trauma that comes from a traumatic event. It is an exposure therapy that has for parts that is education where one is taught about the trauma and PTSD. The next part is breathing where the victim is taught on hoe to breathe and relax. Trauma causes changes in breathing. The next part is the real world practice this is also known as the vivo exposure. The vivo exposure trains somebody on how to approach the situations that victim might be avoiding due to trauma. The last part is talking through the trauma where the victim of trauma talks about the trauma moment. This helps to get the control of feelings and the thoughts that one has. Talking helps one to recover from the traumatic event (Stefan 2006). Trauma reprocessing is a complete therapy which is made up of a guided imagery, drawing or storytelling. It is designed to take away the entire trauma. It reduces the symptoms of the PTSD, depression and anxiety. The roles of the maladaptive beliefs in cognitive-behavioral therapy are those beliefs that are negative, inaccurate and rigid and they are said to cause anxiety and mood disorders. Graded Exposure is way in which one treats the anxiety problems. This method works better in simple phobias and anxiety problems and it helps one to identify what he or she is anxious about. The behavior experiment to reappraise the trauma is an emotion regulation strategy. It depends on other cognitive control processes. Schema in the in psychology and cognitive science helps to describe organized patterns of thought or behavior and it organizes the categories of information and the relationships they have between them (Peter 2009). Reference list Claudia, Z, 2006, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for PTSD. Guilford Press. Copyright, New York Edna, B 2010, Effective Treatment for PTSD, Guilford Press. Copyright, New York Ehlers, Clerk, 2000, Model For Post Traumatic Disorder, Guilford Press. Copyright, New York Oxford University Press, 2006, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Oxford University Press, Oxford Peter, S 2009, PTSD: Basic Science and Clinic Practice. Springer. Copyright, Cambridge Stefan Hofmann, 2006, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Stanley, R 2013, Anxiety. Psychology Press. Copyright, New York Steven, T 2006, Clinicians Guide toPTSD: A Cognitive-Behavioral Approach, Guilford Press. Copyright, New York Victoria M. Follett, 2006, Cognitive –Behavioral Therapies for Trauma, Guilford Press. Copyright, New York Victoria, A 2011, Post-Traumatic Syndromes in Childhood and Adolescence, John Wiley & Sons. Copyright, Los Angels Victoria, M, Follete, 2006, Cognitive Therapies for Trauma, Guilford Press. Copyright, New York Yuval, N 2009, Mental Health Disasters, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge Read More