According to a meta-analysis of 19 studies, trauma and PTSD symptoms may precede a reduction in the size of the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in learning and memory. The findings seem to support a physical, neurological component to PTSD.
As a risk factor for heart disease, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is like “smoking two to three packs of cigarettes per day for more than 20 years,” according to a Geisinger study published in the July issue of Psychosomatic Medicine.
An overview of how news stories, traumatic and otherwise, are "framed," finding a general absence of context and recommending avenues for future research.
In the American Journal of Psychiatry, Jonathan I. Bisson reviews the new Handbook on PTSD: Science and Practice, edited by Matthew J. Friedman, Terence M. Keane and Patricia A. Resickis.
An educator describes how he incorporated a grisly murder in his community into an upper-level journalism course.
An overview of current scholarship regarding how different, contextual approaches to reporting news influence consumers’ knowledge, perceptions and opinions, and the implications for researchers and for journalists.
Should journalists and other witnesses of traumatic or violent events receive mandatory counseling or debriefing in the immediate aftermath?
Nearly every journalist in the course of their career will interview people who have experienced significant trauma. But how many receive any training for the task? This article describes how role-playing traumatic incidents might give student journalists valuable insight and hone crucial interviewing skills.
From catastrophic physical injuries to the invisible wounds of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and depression, the Iraq war has exerted a heavy toll on hundreds of thousands of U.S. troops. At a recent Dart Center event at the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, four pioneers in reporting the human impact of the Iraq War discussed the challenges of reporting on these veterans.
The U.S. military is sending troops with serious psychological problems into Iraq and is keeping soldiers in combat even after superiors have been alerted to suicide warnings and other signs of mental illness, a Courant investigation has found. Originally published in the Hartford Courant, May 2006.