Posttraumatic Symptoms in 3–7 Year Old Trauma-Exposed Children: Links to Impairment, Other Mental Health Symptoms, Caregiver PTSD, and Caregiver Stress

Few studies have examined how PTSD symptoms in young children are associated with other mental health symptoms and mood and functioning in caregivers. This is an important gap in the literature as such knowledge may be important for assessment and treatment. This study used network analysis to identify how the major symptom domains of PTSD in young trauma-exposed children were related to impairment, internalizing and externalizing symptoms, caregiver PTSD, and caregiver stress. Caregivers of 75 trauma-exposed 3–7 year old children reported on their child’s symptoms and impairment and their own PTSD symptoms and caregiver stress. A strong association between the child PTSD domains of intrusions and avoidance emerged, which is in line with theoretical notions of how PTSD onsets and is maintained in adolescents and adults. Externalizing child symptoms were strongly linked to PTSD-related impairment and caregiver stress, highlighting the need to carefully assess and address such symptoms when working with young trauma-exposed children. Internalizing symptoms were uniquely associated with all three of the major childhood PTSD symptom domains with further implications for assessment and treatment.

EMDR for Childhood PTSD After Road Traffic Accidents: Attentional, Memory, and Attributional Processes

Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) was used with 11 children who developed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after road traffic accidents. All improved such that none met criteria for PTSD on standardized assessments after an average of only 2.4 sessions. Significant improvements in PTSD, anxiety, and depression were found both immediately after treatment and at follow-up. Attentional, memory, and attributional processes associated with PTSD were assessed and their relationship to therapeutic change examined. Treatment was associated with a significant trauma-specific reduction in attentional bias on the modified Stroop task, with results apparent both immediately after therapy and at follow-up.

Complex Posttraumatic Stress Disorders in Patients with Substance Abuse

The author will review the published data on complex posttraumatic stress disorder (Complex PTSD) in patients with substance abuse. Especially after interpersonal traumatization in childhood PTSD symptoms may be complicated by personality changes suchs as disturbed affect regulation, memory, self-image and relational problems. This syndrome has been labelled "PTSD with associated features" in DSM-IV-TR and is known by clinicians as "complex PTSD" or "Disorders of Extreme Stress NOS". The recognition of the range of interrelated problems associated with a history of early severe interpersonal trauma is an important development with much relevance for the field of substance abuse. Despite the evidence that a majority of women who are seeking treatment for addictions have been exposed to early and multiple traumatic experiences, standard treatment programs do not typically assess or target these associated impairments, which greatly complicates the prognosis. In practice, integrating interventions that specifically target the associated features are often recommended for these patients. Suggestions will be given for furture research.