SIG Spotlight: The “Middle-Out” Approach to Conceptualizing (and Reconceptualizing) Traumatic Stress – Shane W. Adams, MA, and Christopher M. Layne, PhD

by ISTSS Blogs | Mar 31, 2022 | Assessment and Psychometrics, SIG Spotlight, StressPoints

The diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the DSM-5 have become the most inherently complex to date, with 20 possible symptoms, four factors (with some studies recommending seven factors), and 636,120 different symptom combinations (Armour et...

Media Matters: Could Your Body or Brain Be Putting You at Increased Risk for Developing Psychiatric ‎Symptoms Following Certain Media Consumption?‎ – Noelle Smith, PhD

by ISTSS Blogs | Jan 27, 2022 | Assessment and Psychometrics, StressPoints

Many of the Media Matters pieces in StressPoints have examined the way different media platforms enable increased ease of access and frequency of portraying traumatic events (e.g., images or video footage of war, terrorism, mass casualties, natural events). Although...

Developmental Traumatology: Schools as a Context for Children’s Recovery After Climate ‎Change-Related Disasters – Marie-Claire Meadows, Noelle Serino, Emily Goddard, and Sarah R. Lowe

by ISTSS Blogs | Jan 27, 2022 | Assessment and Psychometrics, StressPoints

Between December 10 and 11, 2021, a series of 61 tornadoes tore through the Midwestern and Southern United States, claiming 88 lives in a season not typically marked by such disasters (Feuerstein & Livingston, 2021). Due to climate change, such extreme weather...

Clinician’s Corner: Psychotherapy Interventions for Co-occurring PTSD and Substance Use Disorders

by ISTSS Blogs | Dec 2, 2021 | Assessment and Psychometrics, Clinical Issues and Treatment, Uncategorized

Important advances in the psychosocial treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and substance use disorders (SUD) have occurred over the past two decades. Whereas before it was believed that trauma work could not be initiated until the patient was abstinent...

Developmental Traumatology: Trauma and Fetal Alcohol Exposure: Neurodevelopmental ‎Implications – Karen Zilberstein

by ISTSS Blogs | Jul 29, 2021 | Assessment and Psychometrics, StressPoints

As awareness of how childhood trauma affects neurodevelopment grows, questions arise about symptom complexity and how neurodevelopment is affected by other comorbid conditions. Youth exposed to toxic stress from early, severe and/or chronic maltreatment can show...

Media Matters: Next-Generation 911 Technology and Potential Impacts on First Responder Mental Health – Victoria Steigerwald and David Rozek, PhD

by ISTSS Blogs | May 27, 2021 | Assessment and Psychometrics, StressPoints

Emergency medical services in the United States currently rely primarily on audio calls and location data to respond to emergencies. With the increasing use of other means of communication such as text messages and video calls, however, communications centers are...