Trauma Blog

ISTSS’s Paper in a Day 2023: Gender differences in DSM-5 PTSD symptom clusters: A network analysis
StressPoints
Date posted: 12/19/2023
Topic: Student and Early Career

On November 1, 2023, another successful Paper in a Day (PiaD) was held at the ISTSS annual meeting in Los Angeles. The PiaD grew out of a wish to foster collaborations between young researchers from around the world. It is designed to stimulate international connections and the exchange of ideas by working on a tangible outcome: a paper, short communication or commentary for a peer-reviewed journal. The PiaD project aligns with FAIR data principles. The focus of this year’s PiaD was on potential gender differences in early post-trauma PTSD symptoms and symptom cluster networks.

Human rights and policy: PTSD treatment in US prisons: An urgent need to expand and improve
StressPoints
Date posted: 09/28/2023
Topic: Student and Early Career

Trauma exposure prior to incarceration is nearly ubiquitous. In a sample of 592 incarcerated men, 99% endorsed experiencing at least one lifetime traumatic experience prior to incarceration, with 59% scoring above the clinical threshold for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) on the PCL-5 (Wolff et al., 2014). Meta-analyses on international samples show prevalence of PTSD ranged from 0.1% to 27% for male and from 12% to 38% for female incarcerated populations (Baranyi et al., 2017). This stands in stark contrast to PTSD rates in the general population, which range between 3 to 8% (Kilpatrick et al., 2013).

Student perspectives: Recent advances in short-term, evidence-based PTSD treatments
StressPoints
Date posted: 09/28/2023
Topic: Student and Early Career
The gold-standard evidence-based treatments for PTSD (Prolonged Exposure Therapy, Cognitive Processing Therapy) and other emerging treatments (i.e., EMDR, ACT for PTSD) are typically implemented in 60 to 90 minute sessions for approximately 12 sessions. These treatments are considered highly effective, and it is often recognized that dropout rates (as well as wait-lists for these services) are high. That said, advances in short-term, evidence-based PTSD treatments are helping to combat some of the potential barriers those with PTSD face in accessing and completing treatment. Specifically, this article highlights two brief PTSD treatments implemented in primary care settings: written exposure therapy, and prolonged exposure for primary care. While the traditional model of outpatient trauma treatment may be feasible for some, expanding the types of settings and treatments, without compromising on efficacy, helps make PTSD treatment more widely accessible.  

Student perspectives: Parenting during graduate school: What we know and avenues for future ‎research
StressPoints
Date posted: 06/28/2023
Topic: Student and Early Career
My doctoral cohort directly consists of three women. Indirectly, there are three spouses, four dogs, two rats, and five children ranging in ages from four months old to nine year old. As the newest parent to the bunch, I have spent much time reflecting on this emerging aspect of my identity, how it intersects with my identity as a doctoral student, and what the implications may be of my choice to start a family during graduate school. I clearly remember the responses I received when those outside of my graduate school network found out that I was expecting a child. The most common responses were “How are you going to do it? Your degree will probably be delayed now – are you sure you thought this through? How do you expect to parent as a student? Was this an accident?” Given these responses, as I prepared to tell those within the graduate school of the news, I braced for impact. This turned out to be unnecessary as those within my program were far more supportive than those outside of the program had initially been. All of this got me thinking, “Is this the norm? What research do we have on parenting during graduate school and as an early career psychologist?” As I embarked down the rabbit hole of research in this area, I was disappointed. Not only is there a dearth of research, but the research that does exist primarily focuses on barriers parents face and negative aspects of parenting. I found few studies highlighting the unique perspective and benefits that can be brought to the table by psychology student parents. Below I briefly outline what we know, as well as opportunities for future research.

Student Perspectives: Supporting Clinical Students Providing Care for Individuals Following Communal Trauma
StressPoints
Date posted: 01/31/2023
Topic: Student and Early Career

According to the Gun Violence Archive, a mass shooting occurs when four or more people, not including the person(s) responsible for the shooting, are shot or killed in a single incident. In 2022, the United States saw over 600 mass shootings with loss of life exceeding 650 people (Gun Violence Archive, 2023). As students working at an outpatient specialty trauma clinic and in a Level 1 trauma center in Colorado Springs, this topic hits close to home following the November 19, 2022 mass shooting at a Colorado Springs LGBTQIA+ nightclub in Colorado Springs. Our community joined together to provide crucial resources and support to those affected by the incident, which included graduate student clinical psychology trainees providing numerous hours of free coping support in the hospital, as well as outpatient therapy. Clinical psychology graduate training involves providing clinical services, which are often free or low-cost, to community members. Given that graduate students also face numerous personal and professional transitions and challenges during training (e.g., managing coursework, balancing multiple practicum placements, conducting dissertations), and are in the earliest stage of their career, it is crucial that training programs provide adequate support to these students who are increasingly at the frontline of service provision following mass trauma. 

Student Perspectives: Experiencing Workplace Bullying in Graduate Student-Supervisor Relationships
StressPoints
Date posted: 12/15/2022
Topic: Student and Early Career
There are places where bullying is less expected, yet it can still be present. University students can experience bullying from any member of the university community. We will focus here on exploring bullying that can exist between a supervisor and their graduate student. This relationship, which can span several years, lends itself particularly to possible relationship difficulties that can lead to different forms of violence. In fact, this relationship is rooted in a power dynamic within a competitive and individualistic academic context that both graduate students and professors must follow in order to fit in and progress in the field (Yamada et al., 2014; Goodboy et al., 2015). Therefore, graduate students are a population that is particularly vulnerable to interpersonal violence in the workplace from their supervisors (Yamada et al., 2014; Goodboy et al., 2015).  

Student Perspectives: Changes in Conceptualization and Assessment of Resilience
StressPoints
Date posted: 07/28/2022
Topic: Student and Early Career
Over time, scholars have asked, is resilience a trait or a state? Typically, traits (i.e., personality traits) are inherent, stable, and require great effort to develop when absent. For example, Klohnen (1996) describes ego-resiliency as “a personal trait comprised of confident optimism, productive and autonomous activity, interpersonal warmth and insight, and skilled expressiveness that leads to effective functioning in diverse areas of life.” On the other hand, states are transitory, and more accessible through learning (e.g., a person can learn to be in a mindful state). Connor and colleagues (2003) define resilience as a state, “a multi-dimensional characteristic that varies with context, time, age, gender, and cultural origin, as well as within an individual subject to different life circumstances.” For example, a person could be more resilient in one context than another. The state-based perspective implies that we all have the capacity to be resilient.

SIG Spotlight: Understanding Resilience in Relation to the Intergenerational Transmission of Trauma and Complex PTSD
StressPoints
Date posted: 05/25/2022
Topic: Student and Early Career
Unresolved trauma in parents may inhibit their ability to physically and emotionally attach and bond to their children, producing trauma in the next generation. These parents may repeat the patterns of behavior that led to their own trauma which includes ideas about parenting (Hill, 2017). Understanding characteristics such as resilience that increase or decrease susceptibility to trauma and prevent the transmission to future generations is one way to help mental health professionals who provide trauma-informed care.
 

Student Perspectives: Interventions for Post-Concussion Syndrome Prevention Following ‎Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Recommendations and Future Directions‎
Date posted: 05/25/2022
Topic: Student and Early Career
Approximately 2.5 million people present to an emergency department each year due to traumatic brain injury (TBI; Taylor et al., 2017). An estimated 75% of these cases involve mild TBI (mTBI; i.e., concussion) and do not require hospitalization (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center or Injury Prevention and Control, 2003). Thus, individuals are triaged and treated in the emergency department, released to rest at home, and receive outpatient follow-up care as needed. Following mTBI, it is not uncommon for people to experience some physical and sensory symptoms, such as headaches, blurred vision and nausea, and cognitive symptoms, such as difficulties with concentration, disorientation, and trouble sleeping. Most people fully recover from these symptoms within three months of the injury (Permenter et al., 2022). When concussion symptoms persist beyond what is expected in typical recovery (i.e., three months for mTBI), post-concussion syndrome (PCS) may be diagnosed (Permenter et al., 2022). Due to a lack of consensus around specific diagnostic criteria for PCS diagnosis, prevalence estimates vary between 11% to around 30% (Dean et al., 2012; Spinos et al., 2010; Voormolen et al., 2018).

Student Perspectives: What is #TraumaTok?‎
StressPoints
Date posted: 03/31/2022
Topic: Student and Early Career
Outside academic spaces and therapy offices, trauma has been a growing topic on social media. Platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, YouTube, and now TikTok all have trauma content. In these online spaces, formal content (e.g., scientific articles, infographics, video conferences) is mingled with informal content on trauma (e.g., quotes from bestseller books on trauma, memes, personal stories). Whether formal or informal, online content on trauma seemingly brings together the perspectives of practitioners, researchers, coaches, and trauma survivors. The topic seems to be getting a lot of visibility. For instance, #trauma and #ptsd have millions of publications on Instagram. YouTube channels on trauma or subtopics of trauma (e.g., Complex Trauma Recovery, Attachment Trauma, Betrayal Trauma) have hundreds of thousands of subscribers and millions of views. Some specialized forums on Reddit (i.e., subreddits) are dedicated to PTSD or C-PTSD and are organized with a set of rules and posting guidelines; they offer peer-to-peer support and have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.