Abstract
This study will examine what the factors are that influence which victims of sexual assault experience PTSD symptoms and which treatments help prevent these symptoms from occurring. The sample includes 100 women diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) attributed to rape who participated in a randomized clinical trial. Findings were assessed through coding and analyzed through participants' written statements at three separate time points: before treatment, during treatment, and one year after treatment ceased. Prior research found that some victims are more likely to experience PTSD symptoms that others. More research is needed to understand what cognitive behavioral treatments can better help determine who is more
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The participants were a variety of ages, races and educational levels. All the women had experienced the assault within the last five years.
The best design for this study is the qualitative/quantitative method. Qualitative methodology provides the tools for researchers to understand complexities within a study. When done correctly the qualitative method can become an instrumental tool to help researchers develop theories and evaluations of programs. The qualitative research would be used to gain insight into which women were experiencing symptoms of PTSD by conducting interviews with the participants. The quantitative research would be used to gather more information by using the surveys and questionnaires that would be given after the interview. The quantitative would allow for numerical data that could be transferred into usable statistics that would give the study a better overall picture of the data acquired (Allen, Rubin 2017).
Procedure
Participants were asked a variety of questions regarding prior mental health issues, child abuse issues, domestic abuse, income, and current mental health issues. They were asked to prior therapy they received, length of the therapy and how long after the sexual assault they sought therapy. Of the women 1 had a PhD, 23 had a bachelor’s degree, 36 had a two-year degree, 21 had a high school diploma and the remaining 17 had a GED. The vast majority of the women were in their 20’s with the age
those who suffered the worst cases of PTSD had sustained stressful and traumatic childhood abuse. In the study, two groups of
The symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder vary. They can include an increased level of anxiety, which can result in difficulty sleeping, concentrating, and an exaggerated response to noise. PTSD can affect a woman who has experienced sexual assault ability to remember past events, in particular events associated with her assault. (2) PTSD can cause feelings of detachment and numbness, as well as a desire to avoid anything that the victim might associate with her assault. While doctors have been able to identify the symptoms in many victims of sexual assault the exact cause of the disorder is still questioned. Is the disorder the body's response to trauma? If so what relationship exists between the symptoms associated with PTSD as trauma? A strong correlation has been found between sufferers of PTSD and poor health. (3) PTSD can lead to depression and sickness. PTSD if not treated can also indirectly cause accidents that can affect a victim's health. These accidents can be the result high levels of anxiety, of a lack of ability to focus, and a lack of ability to respond.
Rape Trauma Syndrome has three stages, Acute Phase, Outward Adjustment Phase and the Resolution Phase.17 The Acute Phase occurs after the initial attack (initial shock, anxiety).The Resolution Phase where the assault is no longer the focus of their life and have moved beyond it. The Outward Adjustment Phase is the stage that could last months or years and the one that the military system can affect positively with appropriate mental health care. In the Outward Adjustment Phase an individual may appear normal but have internal turmoil.18 Within this phase a majority of male survivors attempt to process it with two primary coping techniques: Minimization, the “everything is fine” and Suppression, act as if it did not happen.19 Men may use these coping mechanisms based on maintaining society’s definition of a man, so they try to minimize, suppress or internalize their perceived feelings of being weak or less of a man. This may cause anxiety in which they withdraw from relationships and avoid seeking
In “The Invisible War,” it is noted that “women who have been raped in the military have a PTSD rate higher than men who have been in combat” (The Invisible War, 2012). The impact that military sexual assault has on victims is tremendous. Both physical and mental trauma are common, and they play a significant role in how victims of sexual assault are able to return to their daily lives.
When someone hears about Post Traumatic Stress disorder, they assume it only affects those in active duty or military veterans. However, it can affects those who have seen natural disasters, severe child abuse and horrible events. The national comorbidity survey replications did a survey on how many people in the US have PTSD they say, “(NCS-R), conducted between February 2001 and April 2003, comprised interviews of a nationally representative sample of 9,282 Americans aged 18 years and older. PTSD was assessed among 5,692 participants, using DSM-IV criteria. The NCS-R estimated the lifetime prevalence of PTSD among adult Americans to be 6.8% (1). Current past year PTSD prevalence was estimated at 3.5% (2).The lifetime prevalence of PTSD among men was 3.6% and among women was 9.7%.
After a person experiences sexual assault, the social reactions the survivor receives when they disclose their assault can cause posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. Negative responses have the ability to deter a survivor on their recovery path and influence coping strategies that do more harm than help, and can discourage a survivor from seeking help from others. Positive reactions can provide a powerful effect against negative outcomes, could affect the sense of control over the recovery process, influence positive social coping skills, as well as reduce the symptoms of PTSD. These encouraging reactions improve adaptive coping strategies and perceived control over recovery, and in turn reduce the risk of maladaptive coping. However,
Victims of crime with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an important topic to the field of psychology because it occurs in many victims. It is also important to the field because through research its causes and etiology are able to be discovered, treatments are able to be developed and tested for those with the disorder, and ways are found to prevent the disorder in victims. PTSD is a severe anxiety disorder and is recognized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). The diagnostic criteria for PTSD include, “a history of exposure to a traumatic event meeting two criteria and symptoms from each of three symptom clusters: intrusive recollections, avoidant/numbing symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms,” (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Interest in PTSD in victims of crime is the reason for this literature. More interests include prevalence, differences in gender, and treatment options for those who are victims of crime experiencing trauma (sexual and non-sexual), as well as the measures taken to aide these victims. The following paper will discuss different aspects related to victims of crime with PTSD. The gender differences and treatment types for victims of crime with PTSD will be examined.
Sexual violence can cause a survivor to have psychological, emotional, and physical effects. These effects aren't easy to cope with or
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is caused by traumatic events such as wars and physical abuse. Patients with this disorder must undergo a variety of treatments to control its symptoms. Each culture is affected differently since people are raised based on their own culture’s beliefs. Gender also plays a big role in how the patients react to the disorder showing how the cultural view of gender changes the perspective of PTSD, there are different types of therapy that help to control it, desensitization, cognitive behavioral therapy, group and hypnotherapy not only no civilian patients are affected, war veterans has the most cases of PTSD. Gender also plays a big role in how the patients react to the disorder showing how the cultural view
Sexual assault in the military against women is a very real and serious issue in the military. Sexual assault is more likely to cause PTSD than any other events throughout a woman’s lifetime. Not every woman who experiences traumatic events develop PTSD but preexisting factors can increase chances of developing PTSD. Some factors may include: “Having a past mental health problem (for example depression or anxiety), experienced a very severe or life-threatening trauma, were sexually assaulted, were injured during the event, had a severe reaction at the time of the event, Experienced other stressful events afterwards, do not have good social support” (Veteran Affairs). For women, PTSD symptoms are different than what men experience. Women compared
During the 1980’s an anxiety disorder known as PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, was recognized when one experienced something horrific and then began to re-experience the traumatic event (Bobo, Warner, and Warner 799). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can not be cured, only treated. PTSD was originally brought into perspective when combat Veterans could no longer face their experiences on the battlefield. As years went on, victims of rape, assault, or witnesses of a traumatic event were also diagnosed with PTSD. Although society knows the name of this disorder, PTSD is often underrecognized and under-treated (Bobo, Warner, and Warner 797). Many know that it is an anxiety disorder, but few understand the risks that come along with it.
Within the human experience, there has always been a risk of exposure to both physical and psychological trauma. The threat of violence, personal tragedies, and economic and social catastrophes are all possible triggers for an onset of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). What was once reserved as a diagnosis for veterans has been found to affect both young and old. The development of various assessment tools have been used in diagnosing PTSD and one of the most commonly used tests is the Post-Traumatic Stress Diagnostic Scale. It is an assessment that was developed and validated by Edna Foa to provide a brief but reliable self-report measure of PTSD for use in both clinical and research settings (Zalta, Gillihan, Fisher, Mintz, McLean, Yehuda, & Foa, 2014). The Post-Traumatic Diagnostic Scale is an assessment instrument deigned to be taken by adults with at least an eighth grade reading level. This review of will evaluate the hits, misses, false positive errors, and false negative errors of this instrument and how to each area is applied in interpreting the construct measurement of this assessment tool. Although the Post Traumatic diagnostic Scale has consistently ranked high with clinicians and researchers, in self-reporting the definition of trauma can potentially become subjective and compromise the reliability of the assessment tool.
In Fords, Biomedical, and peer review study, she examined the Psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that are dominant among adults with severe mental illness. In the study, Ford recruited a sample of 38 women in an intensive community mental health services. These women were evaluated with psychometrically interview measures. They were then exposed to a multiplicity of psychological traumas, in which 95% responded, overall 44% met criteria for present diagnosis of PTSD. However, the remaining number met criteria for other Disorders of Extreme Stress Not Otherwise Specified (DESNOS). Another 40% did not meet criteria for either PTSD or DESNOS Ford (2008). Nevertheless, it was found that African American women were less likely than White
Existing controlled examinations of intervention efficacy specific to only sexual assault and rape are presently minimal in comparison to intervention examinations of combination or other types of trauma (Regehr, Alaggia, Dennis, Pitts, & Saini, 2013). Psychotherapeutic interventions that fail to differentiate sexual assault and rape victims from other types of trauma victims may decrease the treatment effectiveness or inadvertently harm participants in this subgroup. Trauma associated from rape or sexual assault differs from other forms of trauma and treatment efficacy should be examined in this manner. Trauma from rape or sexual assault entail symptoms of PTSD, depression, suicidal ideations and sexual dysfunction. Individuals may also indicate feelings of vulnerability, loss of control, fear, shame, self-blame, societal blame and stigma (Russell & Davis, 2007; Regehr et al., 2013; Ullman &Peter-Hagene, 2014). This research proposal intends to explore the long term effectiveness of Prolonged Exposure Therapy (PE) at reducing distress and trauma explicitly for adult victims of sexual assault and rape.
Keep your legs closed, don't wear tights or short clothing, don't wear too much makeup, stay away from boys, well maybe if you didn't wear or look like that, that wouldn't have happened to you, or how about the famous line, "she/he wanted it"!!! When it comes down to Rape or sexual assault, it's as if it is taken lightly. Rape has developed as a joke. Where is the justice for these people? Yet I can understand why it is taken lightly, due to the fact many are falsely accused of rape when in reality it was out of spite or revenge from another individual. Rape is another word for sexual assault. Rape is also known as one of the worst crimes there is. Rape can also mean to plunder or strip something of resources. Rape didn't just occur, Rape has been something that's been done way back. From the medieval times to slavery to even today. It's an ongoing cycle that doesn't stop.