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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:
The Many Aspects of the
Cognitive Mind
Ryan Bevard, Tyler Elder, Karen Funk,
Kristin Kleinschmidt, Amber Phenicie,
Haley Ward
What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
(PTSD)
• Defined as an anxiety disorder that can occur
after an individual has been through a
traumatic event
– During event the individual will think that their life
or lives of others are in danger
– Sense of fear over having no control to the
situation
Events Causing Individuals to Develop
PTSD
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Child, Sexual, Physical Abuse Victims
Victims of Rape
Victims to Serious Accidents
Natural Disasters
Exposure to Combat
Witnesses to any of the above situations
Individuals Exposed to Combat
Situations
• Military Personnel
• Opposing Forces/Combatants
• Witnesses to Combative Actions
– Morina and Ford (2008)
Combat Veterans, PTSD and Injuries
• Peterson, Baker, and McCarthy (2008)
– 2 million personnel deployed from post Vietnam
to 2007
• Schneiderman, Braver, and Kang (2008)
– Mild traumatic brain injury overlapping with PTSD
– Women significant population for PTSD
Potential Health Risk Behaviors for
Those with PTSD
• Vasterling et al (2008)
– Symptoms of PTSD
– Smoking %
– Alcoholic drinks/week in past month
PTSD and the Effects of Memory
• J Douglas Bremner (1999)
– The Lasting Effects of Psychological
Trauma on Memory and the
Hippocampus
•Explains damage to the Hippocampus
and the effects of memory
Hippocampus
•Located in the
Medial Temporal
Lobe
–Involved in
Learning and
Memory
–Sensitive to
Stress
PTSD and the Hippocampus
• Bremner (1999)
– Correlations between victims of Child Abuse and
Vietnam Veterans
– Declarative Memory
– Fragmentation of Memories
– Dissociative Amnesia
MRI of Hippocampus
PTSD (Left), Normal (Right)
PTSD and Decision Making
• Aspects of Study
– Neural Correlates and Possible Therapeutic Effects
– Effects of Learned Helplessness on DecisionMaking
– Development of Decision-Strategies
PTSD and Thinking
• Barbara C. Fisher, PhD
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Consequences of PTSD
Confused Thinking due to Over-Reactivity
Communication Difficulties
Selective Attention Issues
Emotional Distance
Long Term Consequences
Hallucination
• is “false perception of objects or events
involving the senses”
– hallucinations are usually sounds of what occurred
during the Traumatic event and can occur
randomly throughout the person’s life
– (Margoob, 2003)
Perceptible Stimuli
• Temperature of the body or change environment,
and pain is found to be extremely sensitive to
people with PSTD
– alteration in the person normal responses and in their
startle responses
– pleasure, playfulness, negotiation, and distinguishing
relevant stimuli from irrelevant stimuli” becomes hard
to experience
– Results in difficulty coping with normal body functions
and normal situations
– (Kivling-Bodén G, and Sundbom E,1996)
Smell Disorders
• Smelling has been linked to “emotional and
aggressive behavior”
– associated with schizophrenia
– difficulties smelling are correlated to have a hard
time “thinking feeling, and have behavioral issues”
– (Griffith, 2008)
Self-Perception
• Person with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
feels hopelessness, shame, quilt, and feeling
different from others
– related to the person inability to accept the fact
that the traumatizing event is over (Ruzek, 2007)
Nightmares and Flashbacks
• Nightmares
– Occur during the night as a dream
– Relives the experience
• Flashbacks
– Occur while person is awake
– Memories of past traumas
– Mind sends person back to experience
Research
• Bremner, Behavior: The Invisible EpidemicPost Traumatic Stress Disorder, Memory
– Examines how memories can be so vivid
– Compared both sides of the brain
• Found that the right side is active when a flashback
occurs
• Also there is some changes hippocampus
Treatments for Flashbacks
• Using the Game of Tetris
– Has shown that the more that a person plays the
less they will have flashbacks
– Reason is that it is a visuospatial
• Rapid Eye Movement
• Focusing on a safe image
Treatment for PTSD
• Cynthia Aoki (2008)
– Rewriting My Autobiography: The Legal and
Ethical Implications of Memory-Dampening
Agents
• Discusses two main types to treating PTSD
– Psychotherapy
– Prescriptions
Treatment: Psychotherapy
• Two types of Psychotherapy
• Prolonged Exposure
– Focuses on relief from flashbacks and nightmares
• Cognitive Therapy
– Emphasizes on how the individual interpreted the
traumatic event
Overview of Psychotherapy
• Noted as an effective form of treatment
– Not all individuals using psychotherapy become
symptom free
– Emotional pain/distress from recall may impede
the recovery of memories
• May lead to prescriptions
Treatment: Prescription
• Antiepileptic Drugs
• Antidepressant Drugs (most common)
– Reduce symptoms of PTSD
Mind-Dampening Agents
• Preliminary studies for prescriptions that
dampen the recall of traumatic memories of
PTSD
– Weaken the responses of PTSD and its recall to
memory
– Some have been known to delete the memory in
its entirity
• Not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration
Topic of Discussion
• Should the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
allow the production of prescriptions that can
dampen or delete memory for PTSD patients?