Post-traumatic stress syndrome is a  psychiatric disorder that appears in people who have experienced a dramatic episode in their lives (war, kidnapping, violent death of a family member).

In people who suffer from it, nightmares that recall the tragic experience lived in the past are frequent.

Causes

Currently, specialists do not know the exact cause of a traumatic event that can generate this syndrome in some people but not others.

In these cases, genes, emotions and the family situation play an important role. For example, past emotional trauma may increase the risk of developing this disorder after a traumatic event.

Under normal circumstances, the stress hormones and chemicals the body secretes in response to a stressful event return to normal levels within a short period. But for people with PTSD, the body continues to secrete hormones and chemicals.

The causes that cause this pathology can be:

  • A robbery, rape or being a victim of gender violence.
  • Terrorism or a war.
  • Incarceration or a car accident.
  • Natural disasters. 

Symptoms

In some cases, the onset of symptoms can occur years after the causative event. These are the most characteristic signs:

  • Remembrance of the trauma ( flashbacks ), nightmares or instantaneous and involuntary memories at any time of the day.
  • Extreme anxiety when in contact with people, places or any circumstance that reminds of the event.
  • The patient tends to avoid conversations, places, people and, in general, anything that can be related to the trauma.
  • Palpitations, shortness of breath and increased sweat secretion every time the triggering event is remembered.
  • Inability to remember important details of the traumatic event.
  • Feeling psychically distant, numb and paralysed from any normal emotional experience.
  • Losing interest in hobbies and entertainment.

Show signs of hyperactivity: Difficulty sleeping, irritability, inability to concentrate or becoming alarmed very easily.

Prevention

There is evidence that traumatised people who receive psychological support and specialised advice immediately after the triggering episode are less likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.

That is why it is recommended that a specialised professional be used after a trauma.

types

Within post-traumatic stress syndrome, experts distinguish between the acute type, which manifests during the first month to three months after the trauma; and the latent type, which can appear at least six months after the triggering event.

But, in addition, there is another classification depending on the patient’s patient’s symptom picture:

  • The patient continuously relives the traumatic event, which produces repetitive memories of the event that, in most cases, are also mixed with nightmares.
  • This causes annoying reactions of the person in situations that remind him of the fact.
  • In some cases, the manoeuvre adopted is avoidance: the patient shows emotional insensitivity and indifference to daily activities and avoids places or thoughts that remind him of the event.
  • Hyperarousal means that the person continually scans their surroundings for signs of danger, making it difficult for them to concentrate and causing them to jump continuously. This can trigger irritation or fits of anger.
  • Also, the patient may cope with the traumatic event through negative thoughts and moods. This causes guilt or a tendency to blame others for the event and lose interest in daily activities. 

Diagnosis

To diagnose this disorder, the specialist will ask the patient about the duration of the symptoms. It is called post-traumatic stress syndrome if the symptom picture prevails for more than 30 days.

In the same way, physical examinations and blood tests may be carried out to determine if there is another disease that presents the same symptoms.  

Treatments

The treatment is long-term, which explains the high degree of abandonment of therapy.

The therapy is based on a  combination of drugs and psychotherapy. The drugs used aim to treat the various symptoms of the syndrome, taking into account the most pronounced. The medications that are usually prescribed are antidepressants and anxiolytics.

Psychotherapy aims to develop relaxation techniques, such as learning to breathe correctly in the face of a crisis caused by the syndrome.

This treatment can be combined with cognitive methods to rationalise the traumatic events and shock therapy, in which the situation experienced is recreated to help the victim overcome it and lose the fear it caused.

Other data

Most people who have experienced trauma do not develop post-traumatic stress, which is still unexplained. In addition, contrary to what is believed, the severity of the syndrome does not depend on the nature of the trauma that triggers it.

The reaction to a difficult and unusual situation depends very much on the sensitivity of the people affected and their resources to cope with trauma.

In part, this is determined by the genetic characteristics of each person. Still, it is also influenced by the personality and the specific life situation the patient is going through, whether or not he has suffered other traumas in the past or the family and social fabric that can support him.

It is also more common in those individuals who are socially isolated.