"Trauma" has both a psychiatric and a medical definition’. Medically, "trauma" indicates critical physical injury, or shock and is often linked with trauma medicine practiced in emergency rooms. Psychiatrically, "trauma" refers to an experience that is emotionally agonizing, traumatic, or shocking,which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.
Millions of children across the world are exposed to traumatic experiences such as violent crimes, sexual abuse, natural disasters, war as well as major physical illness and injury. In the past ten years, there has been escalating acknowledgement that children who have been exposed to traumatic events can develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). While research has only just begun to examine the effectiveness of diverse treatments for children with PTSD, little is known about the health effects of PTSD in children and the subsequent link to health risk factors occurring in adulthood.
PTSD remains to be a severe public health concern, which impels the search for new paradigms and theoretical representation to expand the understanding of the condition and to develop new and enhanced modes of treatment intervention.
In November 2006, reports from the Adverse Childhood Experience(ACE) study identifies that numerous particular categories of adverse childhood experiences are related with several health risk factors later in life. Some of these adverse effects include smoking, self-acknowledged alcohol abuse and intravenous drug abuse.Although there are many important and effective treatment approaches for the traumatized child,research on the management and prevention of PTSD in children is still unclear
Up-to-date, treatments and procedures for PTSD include:
Forms of psychotherapy:
- cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
- play therapy
- art therapy
- EMDR(eye movement desensitization and reprocessing)
Pharmocotherapy:
Research is just beginning on the use of medications to treat PTSD in children and adolescents
Resourses:
- “Britannica information about mental illness”. Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. 1 March. 2007
- “Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Violence and Disasters”. National Institute of Health 17Feb.2006.1. March.2007
- Kaminier, Debra, Seedat, Soraya, Stein, Dan.J. "Post-traumatic stress disorder in children”.World Psychiatry. 2005 June; 4(2): 121–125. 27 Feb.2007
- Iribarren. Javier, Prolo. Paolo, Neagos. Negoita and Chiappelli, Francesco. “Post-Traumatic StressDisorder: Evidence-Based Research for the Third Millennium”. Evid Based ComplementAlternat Med. 2005 December; 2(4): 503–512. 27 Feb. 2007
- Perry, Bruce. D., Pollard, Ronnie. A., Blakley, Toi L., Baker, William.L., Vigilante, Domenico (1995).“Childhood Trauma, the Neurobiology of Adaptation & Use-dependent Development of the Brain: How States become Traits”. Infant Mental Health Journal, 16(4), 271-291. 27 March.
- Perry, Bruce D. “Violence and Childhood: How Persisting Fear Can Alter the Developing Child’sBrain”. (2001) 27 Feb. 2007
- Seng, Julia S., Graham-Bermann. Sandra A., Clark. M. Kathleen, McCarthy. Ann Marie, and L. Ronis, David. “Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Physical Comorbidity Among Female Children and Adolescents: Results From Service-Use Data”. Pediatrics Vol. 116 No. 6 December 2005, pp. e767-e776. 26 Feb.2007
- Walsh, Nancy. ”Childhood Violence Tied to Later Mental Illness”. Nov. 2006. 28 Feb 2007.
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