PSYCHOLOGY GOLD COAST - POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER (PTSD)

Childhood trauma: Childhood trauma can interfere with the ability to regulate emotions in a healthy manner, leading to fewer adaptive emotion regulation skills. In anxious people, emotional regulation deficits can lead to maladaptive coping with fear-related stimuli, increasing the possibility of chronic avoidance.^[1]

Acute and chronic stress: Most individuals recover from traumatic exposure, while others primarily experience acute stress disorder (ASD) within one to three months from exposure,^[2] increasing the risk of developing more chronic and severe PTSD, especially in the absence of early psychological support.^[3] The severity and frequency of trauma is also a strong predictor of PTSD development. ^[3,4,5]

Inflammation: Immune dysregulation and inflammation have been linked to a number of psychiatric disorders, including PTSD, with patients displaying significantly elevated blood levels of inflammatory markers. Excessive stress during PTSD illness, as well as prior to onset, is linked to increased proinflammatory activity. Normalising inflammatory biomarkers has been associated with PTSD symptom reduction and resolution^[6] – alongside working with your psychologist, our naturopaths and nutritionist can specifically help with immune and inflammatory dysregulation.

Sleep disturbances: Long-term sleep disturbances are common in PTSD patients. Sleep is both restorative and helpful for emotional processing. Although sleep dysregulation is a secondary effect of trauma, it can impede a patient’s recovery and contribute to poor psychological health.

Reduced endocannabinoid signalling: According to growing evidence long-term stress or trauma is linked to decreased endocannabinoid signalling, which regulates processes involved in stress adaptation, sleep, appetite and digestion, pleasure and reward, pain, and memory, ^[7,8]

Genetic factors: Evidence indicates that genetic factors account for 30% to 72% of PTSD vulnerability.^[9]