Media Matters: Next-Generation 911 Technology and Potential Impacts on First Responder Mental Health
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 moving towards incorporating Next-Generation 911 (NG911) technology that allows callers to share texts, photos, and video with communications personnel. This enhanced medium of communication has potential advantages and disadvantages, just as the expansion of other media platforms have increased accessibility to information while also potentially increasing psychological distress related to these events (see previous Media Matters in StressPoints for review: Massa & Jones, 2020).

Comparative Efficacy of Commonly Used Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Clinical Protocols for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Depression
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is highly prevalent among US Military Veterans and is often accompanied by major depressive disorder  (Magruder et al., 2005). These disorders can significantly impact the social functioning, employment, and even physical health of Veterans (Kessler, 2000; Shalev et al., 2017). While medications and therapies have proven efficacious for the treatment of PTSD, many who undergo these treatments continue to experience symptoms and side effects (Watts et al., 2013). Increasingly, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) is being used to augment standard treatment. 
 

Treating PTSD in the context of increased risk for suicide with cognitive processing therapy
Many providers experience reluctance to directly address trauma-related symptoms and disorders out of fear that they may push the client too far and trigger strong emotional reactions and/or behavioral dysregulation. This fear can be exacerbated for the significant portion of clients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) who also experience suicidal thoughts (SI) and behaviors. 

Clinician's Corner: The Transcending Trauma Project, Part I: A Systemic Perspective Of Coping And ‎Adaptation: The Inextricable Connection Between Individual And Family
StressPoints
Through the 1990s, the field of trauma studies focused almost exclusively on the negative sequelae of traumatic experiences. After extensive reading in the field of trauma and Holocaust studies, the Transcending Trauma study group found this to be untrue in our clinical practices and in our life experiences with survivors of the Holocaust. The team decided to address the absence of a fuller understanding of trauma’s impact—especially extreme trauma—by conducting an expanded qualitative interview-based research project with survivors of the Nazi Holocaust during World War II and their family members in the hope of gathering evidence for the development of a psychological conceptualization of how individuals and families cope differently with extreme trauma and how they rebuild their lives.

SIG Spotlight: Psychodynamic Research and Practice Special Interest Group
StressPoints
Modern concepts and treatments of psychological trauma are inextricably linked with the history of psychoanalysis and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Josef Breuer and Sigmund Freud’s first major psychoanalytic text, Studies on Hysteria (1895) is the fountainhead of modern psychotherapy and centers on the hypothesis that many patients “… suffer mainly from reminiscences” of traumatic events. Although Breuer and Freud agreed that their patients could neither fully remember nor ever forget these wrenching experiences, they could not agree on why this was so. Instead, they framed fundamental questions about the nature of trauma, dissociation, conversion (a term which they coined for the Studies), the biological and psychological bases for intrusive memories, and the process of recovery which ISTSS members continue to study and debate today.

Trauma and Diversity: Race-Based Stress for Black People: Impacts and Treatment Directions
StressPoints
Race-based stress is the psychological distress linked to experiencing racism or a racial discriminatory act (Plummer & Slane,1996). Carter et al. (2013) linked race-based stress “to a person’s emotional and psychological reactions and its subsequent mental health effect” (p.1). Specific emotional responses from race-based stress involve a myriad of outcomes, including “fear, tension, anxiety, depression, sadness, anger, aggression, resolve to overcome barriers, social cohesion, and use of the situation as a source of strength” (Carter, 2007, p.77).

President's Message
I am delighted to begin this column by highlighting the release on Earth Day of our ISTSS Briefing Paper on Global Climate Change and Trauma. This outstanding collective work describes how climate change increases the frequency and severity of traumatic events as well as associated posttraumatic mental health problems at the global level. Although this should be obvious, this paper serves as a good reminder that mitigating the effects of global climate change should be central to our mission as clinicians and researchers in general (Roberts & Godlee, 2007), and all the more as clinicians and researchers focused on traumatic stress in particular.

Military Matters: Understanding the Mental Health of U.S. Military Veterans During the ‎COVID-19 Pandemic: The Importance of Risk and Resilience Factors
StressPoints
The potential negative impact of COVID-19 on mental health has been a significant concern in the wake of the pandemic. Initial studies seemed to support this concern, as they indicate evidence of substantial increases in prevalence of depression and anxiety in the general public during the pandemic (Czeisler et al., 2020; Ettman et al., 2020). However, recent reports on deaths by suicide in the U.S. in 2020 have shown a 5% decline compared to 2019 (Ahmad & Anderson, 2021). Further, a meta-analysis of deaths by suicide in 21 countries have also reported results consistent with the trend in the U.S., with overall stable or declines in deaths by suicide in high- and upper-middle-income countries (Pirkis et al., 2021).

Trauma and World Literature: ‎“Poem that Ends at the Ocean” by Jim Moore
The award-winning poet, Jim Moore, author of the poem that follows in this issue’s column, writes in his autobiographical statement that as a young teacher two of his students dropped out of school. These students were subsequently drafted, sent to Vietnam, and killed. In response, Moore returned his draft card, and was therefore imprisoned for 10 months.