Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Case Study

The first step to treating someone with PTSD is to diagnose them. “Several brief tools have been developed to screen for exposure to a Criterion A traumatic event, which allows for rapid identification of persons at-risk for PTSD,” (Lancaster, Teeters, Gros, & Back, 2016). One can go and get screened for the disorder at a primary care clinic. The screening process may include questionnaires that can narrow down the extent of the PTSD. The second step would be to get diagnosed with the ailment by a doctor or psychiatrist to see how frequent and severe the traumatic episodes are. Once a patient has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder they can move on to the actual treatment of their episodes. “Furthermore, across several controlled clinical trials, both pharmacological and psychological interventions have been shown to significantly reduce PTSD symptoms,” (Lancaster et al, 2016). …show more content…
The four treatments are: Psychosocial Interventions (having the patient face their fear directly by being exposed to it safely), Cognitive-Based Therapies (helping people by allowing them to control their own thoughts with confidence), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (helping the patient resolve and process stored memories that may be causing the disorder), and Relaxation-Based Psychotherapies (the process of “relaxing” the human body or the mind to try and help the patient fight through the memory), these are not the only ways of helping but they are the most effective ways (Lancaster et al, 2016). The psychological treatments are effective, however there are also some medications that a patient can