PTSD: A Comprehensive Review

Course overview

This three hour live webinar, PTSD A Comprehensive Review, is especially relevant today due to the increased incidence of post traumatic stress disorder PTSD resulting from the 20 year wars in the Mideast, COVID 19 epidemic, increasing episodes of domestic violence, and the escalating incidence of violence and disasters in the USA. More than 69 percent of American adults will be exposed to some type of trauma in their lifetime. Of these individuals, at least 3.6 percent of the civilian population will develop PTSD, and up to 23 percent of USA veterans will be diagnosed with PTSD in any given year. Hence, it is important for healthcare professionals to understand how patients and clients with PTSD may affect their clinical practice as well as the negative effects the disorder has on their patients and clients lives. This webinar will examine PTSD in detail incorporating the latest empirical clinical and treatment research concerning the disorder. The difference between simple and complex PTSD will be reviewed, along with the epidemiology and psychologic neuroinflammatory theory concerning the activation of vulnerable PTSD phenotypes. Additionally, the disorders biological and psychological theories of development, maintenance, and treatment will be discussed. Comorbid disorders such as anxiety, depression, traumatic brain injury, and substance abuse will be explored. Treatment modalities including medication, traumatic exposure, and trauma informed guilt reduction therapies will be examined, including the patients and clients responsiveness to these treatment techniques. Finally, the unique treatment constructs inherent in complex PTSD, including psychological inflexibility, behavioral activation, cognitive executive dysfunction, alienation appraisal, guilt, anger, shame, moral injury, resilience, alexithymia, anhedonia, sleep disturbance, trust, safety, power and control, and intimacy, will be discussed in terms of their influence on the severity, maintenance, and treatment outcomes of the disorder.