Abnormal PsychologyJiYun RohIB Psychology

Post Traumatic Stress DisorderBulimia

Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Affective

Anhedonia : emotional numbing

Cognitive

Somatic

Behaviora

l

passivity; nightmares; flashbacks; exaggerated startle response

lower back pain; headaches; stomach ache and digestion problems; insomnia;

intrusive memories, inability to concentrate, hyperarousal

Etiology of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Biological Level of Anlysis Increase level of noradrenaline Geracioti (2001) tested participants by

stimulating their adrenaline system. The stimulated patients induced a panic attack in 70 per cent of patients and flashbacks in 50 per cent of patients

Result showed that increase sensitivity of noradrenaline receptors in patients with PTSD

Etiology of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Cognitive Level of Anlysis Development of PTSD is associated with a

tendency to take personal responsibility for failures and to cope with stress by focusing on the emotion, rather than the problem 

Brewin et al 1996 argue that these flashbacks stimulate sensory and emotional aspects of the memory, and subsequently causing pain

Sutker et al 1995

Sociocultural level of Analysis  Racisms, and Oppression contributes in

developing PTSD

Roysircar (2000) Vietnam veterans 20.6 per cent of black and 27.6 per cent of Hispanic veterans met more criteria for PTSD than 13 per cent of white veterans

common cause of PTSD for girls - fear of rape common cause of PTSD for children - domestic

violence

Etiology of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Biomedical Treatment for PTSD Antidepressants and Tranquilizers treat people

suffering from PTSD Common prescribed tranquilizers: Valium and

Xanax Modulate neurotransmitter that regulates

anxiety levels Antidepressants are commonly used because

improvement in depression will lead to improvement in PTSD since most of PTSD patients suffer from depression

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Treatment for PTSD

Foa (1986) the expert of PTSD works as the basis of CBT

CBT includes exposure therapy and psycho-education Expose PTSD sufferers to the traumatic events by

asking them to search their memory and describe the event over and over again

Four goals for CBT:1. Create a safe environment that shows that the trauma cannot hurt them2. Show that remembering the trauma is not equivalent to experiencing it again3. Show that anxiety is alleviated over time4. Acknowledge that experiencing PTSD symptoms does not lead to a loss of control

Group Therapy for PTSD Friedman and Schnurr (1966) looked at the role of

group therapy on Vietnam War They looked at 325 veterans as a group who had

psychosocial deficits (anger management, social anxiety and conflict resolution)

They did trauma-focused therapy: exposure to the traumatic memories, cognitive restructuring, and coping skills development

Result: 27 percent compared to 17 percent = patients who worked through the trauma focused therapy had a higher rate of improvement

Pros and Cons of TreatmentsPros Cons

Biomedical Most effective for short term treatment

Not effective for long term treatment

CBT Therapy CBT allows PTSD patients to reduce anxiety and stress through talking about their trauma

Patients may become initially worse and therapists may become upset when they hear about the patients’ stories

Group Therapy Most effective for long term treatment and for patients’ social lives

Takes time to adapt to the treatment since people have to reveal their trauma

Most Efficient Treatment Behavioral symptoms: flashbacks, nightmares CBT will be most efficient for these symptoms

because CBT allows patients to describe about their trauma event over and over

This makes them realize that “talking about the trauma” is not the same as experiencing the trauma

Allows the anxiety to alleviate over time Allows them to acknowledge that experiencing

PTSD symptoms does not lead to a loss of control

Etiology Treatment

Etiology Treatment RelationshipBiological

Increase level of noradrenaline

Antidepressants and Tranquilizers

Antidepressants modulate nerotransmitter and hormones that regulate anxiety level

Cognitive

take personal responsibility for failures and cope with stress by focusing on the emotion, rather than the problem

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Make patients feel comfortable through psycho-educationFoa (1986)

Social Racisms, and Oppression in social groups contribute in developing PTSD

Trauma-focused therapy

combine patients who have psychosocial deficits into psychoeducational groups and process intensive group therapy Friedmann and Schnurr (1966)

Symptoms of Bulimia

Affective

Cognitive

Somatic

Behavioral

feelings of inadequacy and guilt

recurrent episodes of binge eating; use of vomiting; laxatives, exercise or dieting to control weight

negative self-image; poor body image; tendency to perceive events as more stressful than most people would; perfectionism

- swollen salivary glands, erosion of tooth enamel; stomach or intestinal problems

- Extreme cases: heart problems

Etiology of Bulimia Biological level of analysis Increase serotonin stimulate medial

hypothalamus and decrease food intake Carraso (2000) and Smith et al

(1990)When serotonin levels were reduced in recovered bulimic patients, they engaged in cognitive patterns related to eating disorders, such as feeling fat

Etiology of Bulimia

Cognitive explanationsBody image distortion hypothesis (Bruch 1962) showed that bulimia people overestimate their own body size

Polivy and Herman - cognitive dis inhibition

Milkshake experiment: non dieters and dieters given a chocolate milkshake and later they were asked to have ice creams as much as they'd like and in result dieters ate more than non dieters. 

Because dieting causes cognitive control of eating to override physiological control of eating, making the dieter more vulnerable to disinhibition and subsequent binge eating

Etiology of Bulimia

Sociocultural explanations Social pressure - media coverage, (magazines, tv

shows) promote thinness Jaeger et al. 2002Cross-cultural differences in body dissatisfaction westernized countries seemed to show more amount of body dissatisfaction than non-westernized countries the explanations of disorders should be considered

at a macro-level (society) rather than as originating solely within the individual (micro-level)