PTSD: National Center for PTSD

Types of Trauma

These articles describe common traumas, their prevalence and potential impact on survivors, while also addressing treatment implications.

War and Military

• Traumatic Stress in Women Veterans
  Discusses stressors faced by women Veterans and reviews research on coping and VA changes in services for women.
• Military Sexual Trauma
  Discusses the meaning, epidemiology, and psychological effects of military sexual trauma (MST) among men and women and includes information on screening for and assessing MST, as well as available treatments.
• Providing Mental Health Care for Those Who Experienced Military Sexual Trauma
  Discusses strategies to screen and assess for military sexual trauma (MST), provide evidence-based treatment and share resources with Veterans.
• Psychological Trauma for American Indians Who Served in Vietnam
  Reviews findings from the Matsunaga Project in regard to readjustment experiences of American Indians who served in the Vietnam War.
• Psychological Trauma for Native Hawaiians and Americans of Japanese Ancestry Who Served in Vietnam
  Reviews findings from the Matsunaga Project in regard to readjustment experiences of Native Hawaiians and Japanese Americans who served in the Vietnam War.
• Peacekeepers and Traumatic Stress
  Discusses risk of trauma in peacekeeping situations, prevalence of PTSD in peacekeepers, and risk and resilience factors.

Disaster and Terrorism

Key information

• The Impact of Disaster and Mass Violence Events on Mental Health
  Discusses normal and problematic responses to disaster, including bereavement complications, acute stress disorder, PTSD symptoms, and associated problems.
• Phases of Traumatic Stress Reactions Following Disaster and Mass Violence
  Describes the typical phases of reaction to disaster and mass violence, including: impact, immediate, intermediate, and long term.
• Risk and Resilience Factors After Disaster and Mass Violence
  Reviews the risk and resilience (or protective) factors at the individual, social, and community level that impact the influence of disaster or mass violence events on those affected.

Response and treatment

• For Mental Health Providers: Working with People Affected by Disaster Events
  Learn how to talk about and adapt to disaster events that occur during the course of mental health treatment. Strategies used in Skills for Psychological Recovery are reviewed for use in this context.
• Working with Trauma Survivors: What Workers Need to Know
  Information regarding traumatic stress, for the people who are working with trauma survivors.
• Helping Survivors: Early Interventions Following Disaster and Mass Violence
  Reviews immediate actions that support the well-being of disaster-affected individuals, including evidence-informed recovery elements and Psychological First Aid (PFA).
• Helping Survivors: Intermediate Treatment Interventions Following Disaster and Mass Violence
  Reviews interventions appropriate for the weeks to months following disaster or mass violence events that include supportive counseling, resource connection, resilience-enhancing strategies, and assessment and formal treatment for those at highest risk for ongoing problems.
• Helping Survivors: Long-Term Treatment Interventions Following Disaster and Mass Violence
  Describes research support for trauma-focused psychotherapy and other interventions appropriate for adult disaster survivors who continue to express symptoms in the months to years following an event.
• Types of Debriefing Following Disasters
  Describes several types of debriefing following a trauma, and discusses the pros and cons of this form of mental health intervention.
• Managing Grief after Disaster
  Offers clinical advice regarding grief management after a disaster, including strategies to address traumatic grief and complications of bereavement.

Manuals and tools

• Stress First Aid (SFA)
  Stress First Aid (SFA) is a framework to improve recovery from stress reactions, both in oneself and in coworkers. The goal of SFA is to identify stress reactions along a stress continuum and to help reduce the likelihood that stress outcomes develop into more severe or long-term problems using core actions appropriate for self-care and coworker support. Training materials are available.
• Psychological First Aid (PFA): Field Operations Guide
  PFA is an evidence-informed modular approach for assisting people in the immediate aftermath of disaster to reduce initial distress and to foster short and long-term adaptive functioning. The guide, created jointly with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, is available in multiple languages and includes handouts for survivors. Online training and a YouTube PFA Channel are available.
• Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) Guide
  SPR aims to help survivors gain skills to manage distress and cope with post-disaster stress and adversity. SPR is intended to follow Psychological First Aid (PFA) in the weeks and months following disaster and mass violence events. The guide was created jointly with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network as well as others involved in disaster response; training information is available.
• PFA Mobile
  Following disasters or emergencies, the PFA Mobile app can assist responders who provide Psychological First Aid (PFA) to adults, families, and children.

Helping specific populations

• Impact of Disaster on Older Adults
  Describes risk and protective factors among older adults that affect mental health outcomes following a disaster.
• Terrorist Attacks and Children
  Discusses how children respond to events of terrorism, and offers tips for what providers and parents can do to help.
• Disaster Rescue and Response Workers
  Provides information specific to disaster response and recovery workers on work-related stress reactions and offers tips to help.

Disaster and terrorism research

• Media Coverage of Traumatic Events: Research on Effects
  Discusses effects of news media coverage on children and adults and suggests guidance providers can offer patients, including children and parents.

Abuse and Sexual Trauma

• Addressing the Stress and Trauma of Experiencing Intimate Partner Violence
  Describes IPV, its prevalence and biopsychosocial correlates as well as explaining best practices for screening, referral and intervention.
• Sexual Trauma: Information for Women's Medical Providers
  Provides basic information for medical providers working with women who have a history of sexual trauma and includes suggestions on how to prevent distress in patients.
• Sexual Assault Experienced as an Adult
  Describes sexual assault, epidemiology, the cultural context that may impact the experience of survivors, and the relationship between these events and PTSD, with tips to support mental health providers during assessment of sexual assault and treatment of related mental health concerns.
• Child Sexual Abuse
  Defines child sexual abuse and includes information about prevalence, effects, perpetrator characteristics and safety advice.

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