Date:01/12/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/12/01/stories/2008120158680300.htm

New Delhi

‘Post traumatic stress disorder will be up after terror attack’

Staff Reporter

Leads to intrusive thoughts, nightmares, hyper-vigilance and sleep disturbance

NEW DELHI: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) cases will be on the rise after the recent terror attacks in Mumbai, Heart Care Foundation of India president Dr. K. K. Aggarwal has said.

PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. It has been described as “the complex somatic, cognitive, affective and behavioural effects of psychological trauma”.

Traumatic events that result in PTSD include violent personal assault, kidnapping, military combat, natural and man-made disasters, severe motor vehicle accidents, diagnosis of a life-threatening illness, rape, incest, and childhood sexual abuse.

PTSD is characterised by intrusive thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks of past traumatic events, avoidance of reminders of trauma, hyper-vigilance and sleep disturbance, all of which lead to considerable social, occupational, and interpersonal dysfunction.

According to Dr. Aggarwal, early treatment of PTSD may prevent chronicity and should be considered once symptoms of PTSD persist for three or more weeks following trauma. Treatment for this disorder include counselling and drugs. Dr. Aggarwal also specified six different diagnostic criterions for the disorder according to the symptoms exhibited.

Some of these criterions included cases where the traumatic event was persistently re-experienced, cases where there was persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness that was not present before the trauma.

Other criterions included cases where duration of some of the symptoms of disturbance was more than one month and cases where disturbance causes were clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational or other important areas of functioning.

Also according to Dr. Aggarwal, the disorder could be specified as “acute” if duration of symptoms was less than three months and as “chronic” if duration of symptoms was three months or more. In case the onset of symptoms was at least six months after the stressor then it could be specified as “with delayed onset.”