Trauma Blog

Grief-enhanced trauma-focused evaluation and management for underserved at-risk ‎adolescents
StressPoints
Date posted: 12/14/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
The increasing prevalence of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially during and after COVID-19, is a major public health crisis in the U.S., with a 16-25% prevalence of PTSD in youth (Murata et al., 2021). PTSD is associated with increased neurovascular inflammation, suicidality, adulthood mental health disorders, and major adverse life events (Ahmadi et al., 2020; Ahmadi et al., 2018). There has been a significant increase in the prevalence of PTSD and emergency room visits due to PTSD-related suicidality (Ahmadi et al., 2022; O'Rourke et al., 2023). Increased rates of suicidality in youth have been documented, escalating from 14.1% in 2016 to 30.5% in 2021, the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic in California, for example (Lund et al., 2023). Childhood PTSD and related suicidality are a significant public health problem with serious health consequences to children, with an estimated public health cost of $103 billion annually (Ahmadi et al., 2018; Dolan & Mace, 2006; Gill et al., 2017; Oliveira et al., 2019). The lack of grief-enhanced trauma-informed early screening for PTSD and prolonged grief disorder (PGD) resulted in many individuals with PTSD going undiagnosed and not receiving early interventions.

Interested in serving as a reviewer for NIMH?
StressPoints
Date posted: 12/14/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
The NIMH is interested in expanding the pool of scientists that we engage to review applications submitted to our Institute. We are especially interested in including scientists whose participation can help to enhance diverse perspectives on our review panels and who represent a range of mental health research expertise.

Student perspectives: Treatment considerations for the internal experience of minority ‎stress and trauma
StressPoints
Date posted: 12/14/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues

Evidence has overwhelmingly shown that those who identify with marginalized groups in society may experience mental health-related issues at heightened frequency and with greater symptomatology. This is attributed to minority stress theory, which highlights the additional everyday stressors (such as microaggressions) that minority populations experience (Singh, 2020). Furthermore, intersectionality, which refers to the systems at play in marginalization wherein an individual may have multiple minoritized identities (PettyJohn et al., 2020), lays the framework for the power and privilege an individual is afforded based on their relative position of status in society (PettyJohn et al., 2020).

Clinician's corner: A call for ground-up and trauma-informed approaches in the development of ‎alcohol interventions for North American Indigenous Peoples
Date posted: 12/13/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
Alcohol is a primary determinant of health disparities facing North American Indigenous (NAI) peoples of the United States and Canada, including American Indian, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian and other Native Pacific Islander peoples in the United States, and First Nations, Métis, Inuit and other Aboriginal peoples in Canada, among others. Rates of alcohol use among NAI peoples—while lower than or comparable to other racial and ethnic groups (Center for Behavioral Health Statistics and Quality, 2021)—are distinguished by more severe alcohol-related consequences. Indeed, NAI peoples have the highest rates of alcohol abstinence of all racial and ethnic groups yet exhibit the highest rates of binge and heavy drinking (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2015), and lifetime (43.4%) and 12-month (19.2%) rates of alcohol use disorder are substantially higher for NAI peoples than for other racial and ethnic groups (Vaeth et al., 2017). Thus, reducing harm from alcohol use among NAI peoples is critical to addressing health disparities in this population.

Clinician’s corner: STARS: An ecological blueprint for addressing racial stress in trauma-informed ‎practice in schools
StressPoints
Date posted: 06/28/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
In a world where Black youth are shot for something as harmless and accidental as arriving at the wrong address to pick up their younger siblings, it becomes increasingly evident that we often fail to acknowledge the profound impact of racial stress and trauma. Ralph Yarl’s story is just one among far too many where activities like walking, playing, knocking on the wrong door or simply existing while being Black can have fatal consequences (Zaru & Negussie, 2023). While we have become more accustomed to discussing stories like Ralph's, or to seeing them dominate the U.S. news cycle for days on end, we have yet to fully come to terms with the fact that the reach of racial stress and trauma extends far beyond the confines of direct involvement in a traumatic event. Merely witnessing systemic racism and oppression weighs heavily on our youth, akin to an unspoken toll or what one young person, who participated in our teams’ intervention (i.e., TRANSFORM; Lau Johnson, Saleem, Pickens & Langley, 2021) designed to heal racial stress and trauma, refers to as an invisible burden: “I knew it was there, but I didn't know that it had a specific name to it. Like putting a name to a face, I guess that kind of helped too.” What this teen describes—the ability to articulate the experience they have always felt and known to be true—is what it looks like to provide youth with the necessary tools to address racial stress and trauma. It is about the transformative process of making the invisible visible.

SIG Spotlight: Addressing Traumatic and Minority Stress among Transgender and Gender ‎Diverse Individuals
Date posted: 03/30/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
Transgender Day of Visibility (TDOV) is an internationally recognized event held annually on March 31. The event seeks to bring awareness to the disproportionate rates of discrimination and violence experienced by transgender and gender diverse (TGD) communities, as well as to celebrate the immense contributions of TGD individuals to our society. Despite progress being made in the global recognition of the disparate impact of trauma and violence on TGD populations, anti-transgender legislation in the United States has grown in the past few years, threatening to exacerbate preexisting health disparities for TGD populations (Barbee et al., 2022). Thus, in a cultural climate that subjects TGD individuals to chronic experiences of invalidation, discrimination and harm, it is imperative that traumatic stress researchers and clinicians acknowledge, address and seek to prevent trauma and minority stress for TGD individuals.
 

Trauma and Diversity: For the Women of Iran: Ideological-Based Trauma and the Fight for ‎Liberation
Date posted: 03/30/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
In September 2022 in Iran, Mahsa Amini was detained and beaten by morality police over an inadequate hijab. She had a few hairs edging out from behind her headscarf. She was later killed in police custody. After the story broke, Iran erupted in widespread protests demanding justice for Mahsa and freedom and civil rights for all women. In unprecedented revolution, women and men took to the streets in large enough force to get global attention and the protests have continued for months now. Women’s traumatic experiences arising from patriarchal oppression are human rights violations (Critelli & McPherson, 2019). The personal is political and as traumatologists, we must not be afraid to traverse this topography with our clients. Violence and oppressive action toward women have had devastating effects on many women in Iran. 

How much do trauma-focused psychotherapies for PTSD improve interpersonal functioning?
Date posted: 02/9/2023
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
People with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) often report difficulties with “interpersonal functioning,” which we define as quality, satisfaction, and day-to-day functioning within close relationships, such as those with family, intimate partners, and/or friends. While it seems plausible that reductions in PTSD symptoms enable improved interpersonal functioning, we know surprisingly little about how well trauma-focused psychotherapies address concerns regarding functioning in close relationships. To address this question, we pre-registered and undertook a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the extent to which trauma-focused psychotherapies improve interpersonal functioning.

LGBTQIA+ Issues: Domestic Violence in the LGBTQ+ Community: A Silent Pandemic
Date posted: 09/29/2022
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues

The history of violence against the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ+) community has been originally tied to the notion of disparate identities. Stereotypes permeate popular perception associating homosexuality with criminal activity, mental illness, and deviance.  These views, despite some progress in awareness about the LGBTQ+ community, have resulted in a continued cycle of ridicule, harassment, discrimination, trauma, and even death.¹ Among all forms of violence faced by the LGBTQ+ community, domestic violence is often overlooked. 

Trauma and Diversity: Ableism in Psychological Trauma Clinical Research ‎
Date posted: 09/29/2022
Topic: Diversity and Multicultural Issues
Over 70% of the population will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime (e.g., Benjet et al. 2016). This includes people with disabilities, who are disproportionately excluded from clinical treatment research that may help alleviate psychological trauma sequelae. This group comprises individuals with a wide range of difficulties in various domains of functioning that affect one or more major life activities. Approximately one billion people worldwide live with some form of disability (WHO, 2021). According to a large population survey, an estimated 20,269,500 people have an ambulatory disability, 11,118,100 have a hearing disability, and 7,016,600 have a visual disability (Erickson & von Schrader, 2022). Despite these statistics, scant studies have examined the efficacy of trauma-focused treatment amongst disabled populations (Post & van Leeuwen, 2012; Rogers & Read, 2007). The majority of trauma-focused treatment studies to date have focused on veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and PTSD (e.g., see review, Monsour, Ebedes, & Borlongan, 2022). Yet, the rates of mental health disorders amongst people with physical disabilities are disparately high in contrast to physically healthy individuals (e.g., see review, Mintz et al., 2022). For example, one study found women who experienced sexual assault and were visually impaired had higher PTSD prevalence rates compared to the general population (Bonsaken, Brunes, & Heir, 2022). Overall, there also has been a larger focus on studies of people with acquired (TBI) versus congenital disorders (e.g., cerebral palsy).