Phenomenology and psychological assessment of complex posttraumatic states

✍ Scribed by John Briere; Joseph Spinazzola

• Book ID: 102448461
• Publisher: Springer
• Year: 2005
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 112 KB
• Volume: 18
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0894-9867
• DOI: 10.1002/jts.20048

✦ Synopsis

The authors offer a framework for the assessment of psychological responses associated with exposure to early onset, multiple, or extended traumatic stressors. Six prominent and overlapping symptoms clusters are described: altered self-capacities, cognitive symptoms, mood disturbance, overdeveloped avoidance responses, somatoform distress, and posttraumatic stress. A strategy for the structured, psychometrically valid assessment of these outcomes is introduced, and specific recommendations for use of various generic and trauma-specific child and adult measures are provided. Implications of trauma assessment for treatment planning are discussed.