Contextual issues in the assessment of post-traumatic stress disorder

✍ Scribed by Gloria D. Eldridge

• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 1991
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 1020 KB
• Volume: 4
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.2490040104

✦ Synopsis

In recent years, there has been an explosion of information on the etiology, assessment, and treatment of post-tramtic stress disorder (PISD) in individuals exposed to a wide variety of t r a m t i c stressors. Conprehensive assessment techniques are being developed for diagnosis and treamnt evaluation in P15D; however, there remain mmzrous pragmatic issues related to the context of assessment for PlSD. Issues addressed in this paper incluie ( I ) implicatwm of the purpose of the assessment (e.g., crkD intervention, treatment planning, evaluation for conpensation); (2) sequelae of the assessment, including positive and negative outcomes of exposure to traumatic memories during assessment, (3) characteristics and training of the assessor and the impact of exposure to reports of traumatic events on the assessor; and (4) features of PTSD which affect the ease of case-finding and suggest the necessity for training a variety of health care providers to recognize symptom of PTSD. KEY WORDS assgsmens compensation; diagnosis; post-traumatic s l m s disorder, mn trauma 'Amtiety Disordes Clinic. Department of Psychiatry, St Boniface General Hcspital, 409 Tack Avenue, Wkpeg, Manitoba, Canada, R2H 2A6.