Psychosis as an Emotional Response to Early Trauma - Essay Example

Pain and Psychosis Essays Psychosis Is an Emotional Response to Early Trauma. Etiology of psychosis has been the topic of active researches and controversial speculations for years, with the variety of suggestions being proposed but little exact data to support them. The importance of the issue is conditioned by the fact that for the effective treatment of a mental health problem knowing the roots is primary. Previously, much attention of specialists has been turned to revealing genetic causes of psychosis as well as linking this condition to substance use or brain diseases. Revolutionary in this regard, can be considered the idea that psychosis is a response to early emotional trauma. Being not given much attention previously, the following argument is getting more scientific evidences supported by empirical data. The term psychosis is used to describe an abnormal state of the mind and a mental health problem that is characterized by the loss of contact with reality. Namely, a person suffering from this condition is likely to maintain some false beliefs concerning what is happening and self as well as have various kinds of hallucinations, such as aural, visual, and other. The following disrupts person’s ability to perceive the reality and as a result, prevents one from functioning as an active and healthy member of the society. (French, Smith & Shiers, 2010) As with the prevailing majority of mental health illnesses, both the exact roots of psychosis, the process of its development and coping strategies remain not clear enough and under investigated. Thereof, various aspects of this condition remain ambiguous and controversial. (Larkin & Read, 2008) Among such had been the idea that psychosis can be a response to traumatic events. Today, however, the following suggestion has gained more evidences and empirical evidences. It is recognized that early psychological trauma can be associated with the significant variety of adverse outcomes for an individual, but only recently the accumulation of data on the high rates of childhood abuse in patients with psychosis turned the attention of specialists to the issue under consideration. Since then, the significant basis of evidences was elaborated. For instance, a study by Conus, Berk & Schafer (2009) states that “irrespective of gender, 50 percent of patients, which have psychotic disorders, reported either childhood sexual abuse or physical abuse”. (p. 148-150) These findings are consistent with the cross sectional meta-analysis of studies from 1980 to 2011 conducted by Varese, Smeets & Drukker . (2012) Researches concluded that there is a strong correlation between early trauma and development of psychosis and calculated that “if the traumatic events were removed from the population, the number of people with psychosis could be reduced by approximately 33 percent.” (Varese, Smeets & Drukker, 2012) As a whole, sufficient amount of scientific data that proves the link between traumatic events and psychosis is available today. Not only the phenomenon itself, but its explanations were investigated as well. In 2006 Spauwen & Krabbendam (2006) focused on suggesting possible bases of the proven correlation between trauma and psychosis. According to them, an early trauma can add to the risk of the development of psychosis by means of creating biological vulnerability as a result of neurodevelopmental abnormalities underlying sensitivity to stressors. (Spauwen & Krabbendam, 2006; Bak, Krabbendam & Janssen, 2005) It is explained that persistent exposure to stressors and increased chronic stress-induced glucocorticoid release cause “the permanent changes in the HPA (hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal) axis” (Spauwen & Krabbendam, 2006) The following dysregulation contribute to dopaminergic abnormalities that are seen in patients with psychosis. Similar conclusions were made by other scientists as well, all agreeing that the dopamine function can be involved. Expanding on the widespread assumption, adverse early events create an increase of the amount of supersensitive dopamine 2 receptors. (Seeman & Seeman, 2011) The heightened neurotransmission is experienced as overstimulation – unpleasant symptoms that lead to psychosis. In this way the brain is expected to adapt and to be protected from the further injury. (Seeman & Seeman, 2014) As a mental health problem, psychosis interferes with all aspects of person’s life and decreases its overall quality. In a search for effective treatment options specialists in psychology and neuropsychology regarded roots of psychosis as an extremely important issue to be investigated. In this context, the variety of suggestions has been offered to explain the development of the condition. Among such are beliefs that psychosis can appear due to genetic predisposition or as a result of brain diseases. However, today, it is possible to argue that psychosis appears as an emotional response to early trauma. Currently, there is sufficient amount of plausible scientific researches and studies that investigated various aspects of the correlation between trauma and psychosis that prove the link. References Bak, M., Krabbendam, L., & Janssen, I. (2005). Early trauma may increase the risk for psychotic experiences by impacting on emotional response and perception of control. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica, 112(5), 360-366. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16223423 Conus, P., Berk, M., & Schafer, I. (2009). Trauma and psychosis: Some aspects of a complex relationship. Acta Neuropsychiatrica, (2), 148-150. Retrieved from http://www.isps-ch.org/doc/09 06-L-Conus Trauma Acta.pdf French, P., Smith, J., & Shiers, D. (2010). Promoting recovery in early psychosis : a practice manual.. (pp. 174-177). Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. Retrieved from https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=jgK466ikXPUC&pg=PA177&lpg=PA177&dq=Psychosis is an emotional response to early trauma&source=bl&ots=Q-j0_LHQUT&sig=zQ_-GmGaSIWJgRVVTiUB0RrG9fE&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=XVWuVKnyO6b5yQO6uoAQ&ved=0CEQQ6AEwBA Larkin, W., & Read, J. (2008). Childhood trauma and psychosis: Evidence, pathways, implications. Journal of Postgraduate Medicine, 54(4), 287-293. Retrieved from http://www.bioline.org.br/pdf?jp08101 New evidence shows link between childhood trauma and psychotic experiences. (2013). Science Daily, Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/07/130710103815.htm Spauwen, J., & Krabbendam, L. (2006). Impact of psychological trauma on the development of psychotic symptoms: relationship with psychosis proneness. British Journal of Psychiatry, (188), 527-533. Retrieved from http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/188/6/527.long Seeman, P., & Seeman, M. (2011). Schizophrenia and the supersensitive synapse. Neuropsychiatry, 1(3), 233-242. Retrieved from http://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/abs/10.2217/npy.11.18 Seeman, M., & Seeman, P. (2014). Is schizophrenia a dopamine supersensitivity psychotic reaction?. Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry, Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3858317/ Varese, F., Smeets, F., & Drukker, M. (2012). Childhood adversities increase the risk of psychosis: A meta-analysis of patient-control, prospective- and cross-sectional cohort studies. Schizophrenia Bulletin, 1-11. Retrieved from http://schizophreniabulletin.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/03/28/schbul.sbs050.full The Experience of Pain Can Be Unique To The Individual. Pain is a universal sensation, meaning that all people can experience it in the same form. At the same time, it is a well-known fact that different people tend to experience pain differently: some are excited about making piercing and easily withstand another session of tattoo making while for others even a regular injection causes much sufferings. The following observation laid the ground for the research aimed at revealing various aspects of the phenomenon of the uniqueness of pain experience. Subsequently, it is known that the subjective perception of pain can depend on the list of factors that either reduce its intensity or add to it. Variability of pain experience and response to pain creates the biggest challenge for the study of pain as far as all the information that can be extracted is highly subjective and depends on one’s unique perception that cannot be otherwise evaluated. Therefore, how a third person can appreciate sensory first-hand experience of another individual has been among the fundamental problems in studying sensation as a whole. Yet, the fact that an experience of sensory event derives from a winding of “afferent information from peripheral sensory transducers with cognitive information about the past, present context, and future implications of the stimulus” helped to realize that pain involves more than simply a sensation, but an evaluative component as well. (Coghill, McHaffie & Yen, 2003) Subsequently, certain psychological, emotional, and social-contextual factors are sure to be responsible for the existing differences in pain perception. To start with, it should be mentioned that both genetic and environmental factors are essential for producing differences in pain recognition. In this context, among the first to be investigated have been gender differences of pain. A study published in Scientific American in 2012 (Rettner) informs that across a number of diseases women reported feeling more pain in comparison to man. Other studies, such as the one involving heat pain experiments confirm such conclusion. At the same time, according to Belfar (2013), subjective evaluation of pain in an experiment depended on the gender of an experimenter: men reported less and women – more pain when tested by an experimenter of the opposite sex. Moreover, cultural differences are also to be considered when the issue of pain differences is discussed. Although the sense of pain appears to be fundamental human capacity and the primary survival and protective skill, the way various peoples perceive and treat pain has changed under the influence of various cultural traditions and teachings. For instance, a characteristic feature of some cultures of Africa, India, and Middle East is the presence of painful rituals and customs that are perceived as desirable and honorable by the local people. As a result, their pain threshold is likely to be higher than that of the Western people. (Belfer, 2013) Interestingly, switching attention to the spiritual component of painful rituals also tends to be a factor that reduces intensity of the perceived pain. In addition, the context in which pain occurs is proved to matter as well. Hansen & Streltzer (2005) mention that “the pain perceived in a battle wounds bears little relationship to the extent of these wounds” (p. 339-340). Due to the fact that environmental factors can explain only a part of inter-individual variability in the perception and sensitivity of pain, other concurrents were also regarded. As so, together with anxiety, fear, mood, expectations, one’s personality and other psychosocial and environmental factors, genetics is revealed to be influential as well. (Coghill, 2010) Highly demonstrative are studies of twins that illustrated the extent to which genes condition pain differences. Namely, genetics accounts for near 26-32 percent of the individual variability in heat pain and approximately 60 percent – in cold pressor pain. (Coghill, 2010) The following makes it possible to argue that genetic factors are important when it comes to the uniqueness of pain experience. To sum up, pain can be referred to as an experience that includes unique sensation resulting from a kind of a damage being caused to a body. It is common for all individuals and should be regarded as a primary mechanism of protection and survival. At the same time, it appears that the perception and evaluation of pain varies from person to person with some being capable of standing much more intense pain than others. This phenomenon fueled numerous researches and studies that revealed the list of factors standing behind pain being unique to one. Among the most essential are gender, cultural background, genetics, personality, and attitude of one to the experience of pain. References Atlas, L., & Wager, T. (2012). How expectations shape pain. Neuroscience Letters, Retrieved from http://wagerlab.colorado.edu/files/papers/Atlas 2012 NeuroSci Letters expectations pain.pdf Belfer, I. (2013). Nature and nurture of human pain. Scientifica, Retrieved from http://www.hindawi.com/journals/scientifica/2013/415279/ Coghill, R., McHaffie, J., & Yen, Y. (2003). Neural correlates of interindividual differences in the subjective experience of pain . Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 100(14), 8538-8542. Retrieved from http://www.pnas.org/content/100/14/8538.full Coghill, R. (2010). Individual differences in the subjective experience of pain: New insights into mechanisms and models. Headache, 50(9), 1531-1535. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2959190/ Hansen, G., & Streltzer, J. (2005). The psychology of pain. Medical Clinics of North Amercia, (23), 339-348. Retrieved from http://williams.medicine.wisc.edu/painpsychology.pdf Rettner, R. (2012). Women feel pain more intensely than men do. Scientific Amercian, Retrieved from http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/women-feel-pain-more-intensely/ Read More