Two troubling reports were released this past week about climbing suicide rates, each of which point out misperceptions in the public's understanding.
After two packed days at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies conference, I was exhausted, even though I didn't make it the conference's liveliest evening session (see picture). But between meetings with Dart Center and Dart Society leaders on the third and final day, I still managed to sit in on several significant panels, all speaking directly to the interface between journalists and the traumatic human experiences they cover ...
After my last post, at the end of my first day at the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies' annual conference, the ISTSS gave out their annual awards. Of particular note: the 2008 Frank Ochberg Award for Media and Trauma Study was given to the Dart Center's founding director, Roger Simpson, for his groundbreaking research work ...
Once a year, you can find the world's trauma experts, the Dart Center's staff and the journalists who won Dart's annual Ochberg Fellowships in one place: the annual meeting of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies. This year the place is Chicago, and while the fellows are bonding in their fourth day of seminars, I'm wandering in and out of panels learning about the cutting edge of trauma research from psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, nurses, counselors, administrators, advocates, journalists, and even clergy. Today through Sunday, I'll be blogging their nuggets of wisdom here.
Journalists in Switzerland and Germany are talking about the case of Carl Just: a war reporter suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder who just sued his former employer. Just's lawsuit appears to be the first suit for work-related PTSD to be brought by a journalist against a European media company.
According to a study in the September 2008 American Journal of Preventive Medicine, there are only a few proven, effective practices for treating children with post-traumatic stress disorder. Yet more than 75% of mental health professionals may be practicing something else.
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.
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 article in this month's American Journal of Psychiatry studies the mental health of American veterans who were injured in Iraq or Afghanistan. Veterans were surveyed three times: one month, four months and seven months after deployment.