Trauma Blog

The importance of personality in the development of PTSD in firefighters
Fire fighters routinely risk their lives to protect the public. Over 1 million fire fighters in the United States alone sign up for this dangerous profession to protect people, wildlands, and property despite known threats to their healthy, safety, and wellbeing. While our prior research points to remarkable levels of resilience in this population given their enormous exposure to a variety of traumatic experiences (Gulliver et al., in press), a minority of fire fighters do develop posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or related mental health problems. This points toward the presence of individual-level risk factors that drives this variability in responses to traumatic events. 

Student Perspectives: Acute Stress Reactions: Learning More about Rapid Interventions for Professionals ‎in High-Risk Occupations Exposed to a Potentially Traumatic Event
StressPoints

Editor’s note: ISTSS participated in the development of the Vicarious Trauma Toolkit, a repository of tools and resources that law enforcement, emergency medical, fire and victim services organizations can use to address vicarious trauma in staff and volunteers

Soldiers, police officers, firefighters, paramedics and other professionals in high-risk occupations regularly face high stress and life-threatening situations. These situations can lead to acute stress reactions (ASRs) immediately after exposure to a potentially traumatic event (PTE). Since every decision during a crisis counts, ASRs can endanger professionals and their teams through impaired decision-making and reckless behaviors (Farchi et al., 2018; Svetlitzky et al., 2019). Managing ASRs quickly and effectively on-site is therefore essential for individuals to regain adequate levels of functioning. This piece will build on two recent peer-reviewed articles on rapid interventions aimed at reducing ASRs (Farchi et al., 2018; Svetlitzky et al., 2019).

President's Message

I am truly honored and humbled to serve as the president of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies, especially during these trying times due to the global pandemic. 

I can only start this column by addressing how challenging 2020 was for us all. 2020 will be remembered as a year that saw a range of unprecedented threats to the existence and welfare of our communities and to our planet as a whole, with events ranging from major wildfires to mounting political tensions to a global pandemic.

Announcing the Awardees for the Inaugural Journal of Traumatic Stress ‎Editorial Fellowship for Underrepresented Scholars
To reach the goals of achieving real and lasting change that will effectively redress institutional racism and its adverse effects on science and practice calls for more than issuing statements of support; it calls for action. To this end, this year I initiated the Journal of Traumatic Stress Editorial Fellowship for Underrepresented Scholars to pave a pathway toward leadership positions in scholarly publishing for diverse emerging scholars in the field of traumatic stress studies.

Clinician's Corner: The Assessment and Treatment of PTSD in South Africa: ‎ A Move Towards Effectiveness
StressPoints
Over the last few decades, several trauma-focused psychotherapies have accrued substantial evidence to effectively treat posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Further development in the field of traumatic stress research has been the evaluation of empirically supported treatments (ESTs) such as prolonged exposure therapy (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT), among others, in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) (see Kaysen et al. 2020; Rossouw et al., 2020). Yet even with the availability of several efficacious trauma therapies for PTSD, the uptake and implementation of these treatments remain relatively sparse in LMICs such as South Africa. 

Long-Term Effects of Peacekeeping Deployment on Mental Health
Peacekeeping missions involve experiences that may impact the mental health of participating soldiers. The present study aimed to find the prevalence of mental health problems (MHPs), possible MHP predictors, and associations between predictors and MHPs in Norwegian peacekeepers 18–38 years after deployment to a United Nations peacekeeping mission. 

Student Perspectives: Application Season in the Time of COVID-19
StressPoints
As students and trainees may have noticed, this year looks very different, in many ways, but specifically the application process for graduate school, internship and postdoctoral positions has changed drastically. While these are worrisome times, it is possible that the changes currently being made to lower the barriers for applicants in the time of COVID-19 may lead to important long-term changes that will ultimately benefit the world of clinical psychology.

Trauma and World Literature: She’s Gotta Have It
StressPoints
She’s Gotta Have It, Episode 5
Written by Barry Michael Cooper
Produced and Directed by Spike Lee
First aired on Netflix November 23, 2017