Posted: July 17th, 2022

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder – Thompson Family Case Study

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder – Thompson Family Case Study
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In the Thompson Family case study, William Thompson is a 38-year-old African American and was a captain in Iraq. He now lives with his brother Henry, Henry’s wife Rosita, and their children. The family members think that William has posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), although William himself seems to disagree.

The DSM 5 Criteria for PTSD

In the DSM 5, five criteria must be met when diagnosing PTSD (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Criteria A involves being exposed to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual abuse. In William’s case, he might have been directly involved in traumatic events while in Iraq or even repeatedly witnessed some of his teammates who experienced traumatic events. Criterion B specifies that intrusive symptoms associated with the trauma must be present; for example, persistent intrusive memories about the trauma, nightmares, and flashbacks. In William’s case, his family, especially his wife, might have recognized some of these symptoms that cause distress in William. Criterion C involves the presence of avoidance of stimuli related to the traumatic event. William seems to be avoiding conversations about PTSD and his experiences while in Iraq that would arouse distressing memories.

Criterion D stipulates the presence of negative alterations in mood and cognition that can be characterized by persistent negative beliefs about oneself, inability to remember important details of the traumatic event, feelings of detachment, and/or diminished interest in activities. William’s family could have noticed more than two of these symptoms. Criterion E stipulates that individuals must have at least two symptoms of marked alterations in reactivity and arousal, such as irritable behavior and angry outburst, self-destructive behavior, problems with concentration, hypervigilance, or sleep disturbances (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). In the case study, William is having difficulties due to PTSD-related concerns that may include reduced concentration or irritable behavior. He also has alcohol-related issues that may suggest self-destructive behavior in terms of heavy alcohol intake.

Possible Therapeutic Approaches

The therapeutic interventions that can significantly benefit this patient include expose-based psychotherapies such as prolonged exposure (PE) and cognitive processing therapy (CPT). These approaches are recommended as the first-line interventions for individuals with PTSD (Charney et al., 2018). In CPT, treatment often focuses on psychoeducation about PTSD symptoms, teaching cognitive restructuring, and utilizing Socratic questions about the overaccommodated cognitive distortions (Rutt et al., 2018). These approaches collectively increase the patient’s awareness of his/her distorted thinking and teach them how to challenge and modify those thoughts. This enables patients to manage and control their thinking patterns and find meaning in their trauma (Zaleski, 2018).

PE’s core components include relaxation techniques training, PTSD psychoeducation, imaginal exposure of the most feared memories about the traumatic events, and in-vivo exposure of places, people, or situations that trigger memories (Rutt et al., 2018). Through repeated exposures, PE’s goal is to enable the patient to confront their fears and memories that are usually avoided. The memories of fears will become less painful and/or frightening with time. Psychoeducation and relaxation techniques help the patient control and better understand and make meaning of the traumatic thoughts (Charney et al., 2018).

Expected Outcomes

Both PE and CPT involve psychoeducation. As a result, it is expected that the patient’s awareness of his condition, thought processes, and behavior will be enhanced (Zaleski, 2018). It is also expected that the patient’s fear of painful memories and/or avoidance of traumatic memories that result in PTSD symptoms will decline with time. For example, Rutt et al. (2018) reported that individuals with PTSD who receive either CPT or PE would experience more than a 20% decline in their symptoms after 12 sessions. As a result, essay writers the patient is expected to report a significant reduction in PTSD symptoms and lead to clinically meaningful improvements over time.

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

Charney, M. E., Hellberg, S. N., Bui, E., & Simon, N. M. (2018). Evidenced-based treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder: An updated review of validated psychotherapeutic and pharmacological approaches. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 26(3), 99-115. https://doi.org/10.1097/HRP.0000000000000186

Rutt, B. T., Oehlert, M. E., Krieshok, T. S., & Lichtenberg, J. W. (2018). Effectiveness of cognitive processing therapy and prolonged exposure in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Psychological Reports, 121(2), 282-302. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294117727746

Zaleski, K. (2018). Top-Down (Cognitive) Therapies that treat trauma. In Understanding and treating military sexual trauma (pp. 109-126). Cham: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-73724-9_7

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