Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): Does Hypnosis Treatment Helps?

Such events could be military combats, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like raping, child abuse and similar. Most of the people who experienced these things are able to return to normal life within some given time, but there is also a great number of people who develop a serious stress reaction disorder that, will not go away on its own and may even get worse over time.

The primary symptoms of PTSD

•    Intrusion - the reliving of the trauma causing event on a fairly persistent basis such as:

o    Recurring and disturbing memories of the event,
o    Distressing dreams of the event,   
o    Feeling of re-experiencing the event itself, such as illusions, hallucinations and flashbacks,   
o    An intense fear during exposure to events that could resemble the past traumatic event

•    Avoidance – This is very common mechanism in which, the individual attempts to avoid situations which are associated with the trauma

•    Hyper arousal – When the individual has problems with feelings of increased arousal or vigilance that were not present before the trauma:

o    Difficulty with sleep,   
o    Intense irritability and angry outbursts,   
o    Difficulty with concentration,   
o    Hyper vigilance,
o    An over-exaggerated startle response when surprised,

Signs of increased panic and stress response, such as rapid breathing, higher heart rate, sweating etc. when exposed to situations that resemble the earlier trauma.

Other symptoms that could occur months or even years after the original trauma may include the following:

• amnesia, forgetfulness, inability to concentrate
• panic attacks
• obsession - the experience takes over your life
• feelings of nervousness, anxiety and fear
• depression and avoidance behavior
• excessive shame, embarrassment or guilt
• emotional numbness or detachment
• Lack of motivation
• Poor concentration

Statistical data

An estimated 7.8 percent of Americans experience PTSD at some point in their lives. Women (10.4%) are affected almost twice as much as men (5%). About 3.6 percent of U.S. adults aged 18 to 54 have PTSD during the course of a given year.
 
War is also an important risk factor because it is proven that, about 30 percent of men and women who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD. More than half of all male Vietnam veterans and almost half of all female Vietnam veterans have experienced PTSD.

What causes PTSD?

Following a traumatic event, it is normal that a person's perception changes and serves to somehow distance the person from the extreme circumstance.
This is a completely natural mechanism. It helps a person cope with the situation and provides self-protection. Persons who are diagnosed with PTSD are those where the above mentioned thought processes continue to occur later in life. This is considered to be the consequence of a response to any trigger that brings back thoughts of the trauma.
 
Biochemically, several researches done in the past showed that this may be related to persistent elevations of a substance called glutamate in the brain. What is the role of this glutamate?
 
Glutamate generally rises in response to stress and returns to normal following the event.

Who is most likely to develop PTSD?

Target groups that are most likely to develop this psychiatric disorder are:

Those who experience greater intensity of stress situations, especially if those situations are unpredictable and uncontrollable.

Those with vulnerability factors such as

• genetics,
• early age of onset and
• longer-lasting childhood trauma,
• lack of functional social support, and
• Concurrent stressful life events.

Those who experience threat or danger, suffering, upset, terror, and horror or fear

Those whose social environment produces feeling of shame, guilt, stigmatization, or self-hatred

What are the consequences associated with PTSD?

It is proven that PTSD is associated with a number of distinctive neurobiological and physiological changes. People diagnosed with PTSD may experience several neurobiological alterations in the

1. Central nervous system and
2. Autonomic nervous systems

Many experts believe that the main problem is that, people with PTSD tend to have abnormal levels of key hormones involved in the body's response to stress:

• Cortisol levels in those with PTSD are lower than normal
• Norepinephrine levels are higher than normal.

PTSD patients also develop problems with over-active thyroid gland. When the diagnosis of PTSD is set early in childhood, those children have greater chances to develop some other psychiatric disorders.
 
The most common disorders found in people with PTSD are:

Men

• alcohol abuse or dependence (51.9 percent),
• major depressive episodes (47.9 percent),
• conduct disorders (43.3 percent), and
• Drug abuse and dependence (34.5 percent).

Women

• major depressive disorders (48.5 percent),
• simple phobias (29 percent),
• social phobias (28.4 percent), and
• Alcohol abuse/dependence (27.9 percent).

Some other, non-psychiatric disorders may also occur. They include headaches, gastrointestinal complaints, immune system problems, dizziness, chest pain, and discomfort in other parts of the body.

Treatment of PTSD

There are several forms of PTSD therapy and most of them showed beneficial results. The most common are:

Medications

Doctors often prescribe different antidepressants such as

• Selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors -Sertraline, Fluoxetine, Fluvoxamine, or Paroxetine or
• Monoamine oxidase inhibitors - such as Phenelzine
• Medications for anxiety may be helpful as well.

Psycho-Therapy

Behavioral therapy
This is a procedure which uses specific processes that involve mental imagery of the traumatic event combined with relaxation techniques
 
Cognitive therapy
This involves learning various coping skills in order to change the thought process about the past traumatic event
 
Psychodynamic therapy
This includes a very effective supportive therapy that is made to help an individual gain insight into his reactions to the event and then he can learn how to battle with occurrence of the trauma.

Hypnosis

Hypnosis is a normal and natural altered state of consciousness or awareness. Although many people think of hypnosis as some “zombie-like” method, the fact is that, after a hypnosis session, most of the people ask if they have really been hypnotized. This is because it feels like such a normal state, although they were expecting something very strange.
 
Hypnotherapy has long been used to treat war-related post-traumatic conditions. In the last couple of years it has been also used in cases of sexual assault, car accidents and other traumatic events.
 
The principle of hypnosis is to induce a deep state of relaxation in patient, which may help cope with PTSD, causing

• Feelings of safer and less anxious environment,
• Decrease of the intrusive thoughts, and
• Re-involvement in daily activities.

How does it work?

• Proper diagnosis of PTSD
• The hypnotherapist should be aware whether he is dealing with a single, or multiple incidents of trauma.
• Client should understand the concept of PTSD and hypnotherapy goals
• Everything must be voluntary. If the patient has any doubts about this method, they should be excluded.

• Smoking cessation     
• Weight control
• Stress elimination
• Removing anxiety        
• Curing a fear or a phobia
• Eliminating claustrophobia and agoraphobia
• Improving confidence
• Enhancing exam concentration      
• Eliminating exam nervousness        
• Eliminating stuttering and stammering        
• Stopping nail biting and other habits
• Improving sports performance        
• Managing pain    
• Altering addictions    
• Reducing sadness      
• Enhancing sexual performance        
• Eliminating performance anxiety
• Developing speed reading        
• Improving relaxation

Prevention

Bad thing about this disorder is that, practically, there is no prevention for PTSD. This is because the traumatic events are often unpredictable and random. Some researches have proven that certain blood pressure medications, if given immediately after the stressful event can cause mild lowering of the symptoms intensity.