Dr. Tajuddeen A. Williams

Responses to terrorism

· Personal Essays

Out of the illnesses associated with terrorism in the world today, post-traumatic stress disorder is one of the most commonly reported, and was the most commonly reported after the events of September 11^(th). Researchers reported a high prevalence of comorbid PTSD and depression in those who were in proximity or involved on the 9/11 more than a decade afterwards (Caramanica, Brackbill, Liao, & Stellman, 2014).

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

In the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-V), post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and and acute stress disorder (ASD) are two illnesses which are diagnosed after a traumatic event. PTSD is a serious illness that is categorized by an intense fear, helplessness, or horror which they felt during a traumatic event (Borum, 2004, pp. 279-282). Some of the more prevalent features of PTSD include emotional numbing, hyperarousal, and flashbacks of the event. Although PTSD is categorized as an anxiety disorder, it covers several forms of abnormal and pathological anxiety conditions. These may occur instantaneously or after a period of a few years, and they may interfere with day to day functioning.

The criteria for PTSD includes witnessing or experiencing a traumatic event, such as the the attack on the World Trade Centers in New York on September 11^(th). This event can include death or injury, or even the threat of serious injury to oneself or others. The response to a traumatic event must be fear, helplessness, or horror, and it must rule out other disorders such as substance abuse or dependence disorder, acute stress disorder, which has a duration of up to four weeks, or mood disorders. A person is considered to be suffering from PTSD if they have one or more re-experiencing symptom, two or more arousal symptoms, and three or more avoidance symptoms; and they must be present for at least a month or more, as well as cause significant distress, and cause social, functional, or occupational impairment (Borum, 2004, p. 277; Momartin, Silove, Manicavasagar, & Steel, 2004).

Between genders, men are less likely than women to develop PTSD. Out of all American men, 62 percent of them will be exposed to some type of traumatic event at some point in time in their lives. Roughly 41 percent of American women will be exposed to at least one traumatic event. However, only 8 percent of the men and 20 percent of the women will meet the criteria for PTSD (Caramanica et al., 2014). The strongest indicator on whether a person develops PTSD or not is how they interpret the causes of the trauma (Caramanica et al., 2014).

From a biological standpoint, those who do not experience PTSD show more activity in the prefrontal cortex, which differs from those who experience it. Those who experience PTSD have two areas in the brain that shrink, the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) (Fani et al., 2012), which is a part of the prefrontal cortex. These two areas are responsible for memory and reasoning and decision-making respectively. For those who are reminded of the trauma, they are said to have an overactive amygdala, which is responsible for processing emotion and fear (Coan, Schaefer, & Davidson, 2006).

References

  • Borum, R. (2004). Psychology of Terrorism. Tampa: University of South Florida. ↩1 ↩2
  • Caramanica, K., Brackbill, R. M., Liao, T., & Stellman, S. D. (2014). Comorbidity of 9/11‐related PTSD and depression in the World Trade Center health registry 10–11 years postdisaster. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 27(6), 680–688. http://doi.org/10.1002/jts.21972 ↩1 ↩2 ↩3
  • Coan, J. A., Schaefer, H. S., & Davidson, R. J. (2006). Lending a hand: Social regulation of the neural response to threat. Psychological Science, 17(12), 1032–1039. http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01832.x ↩
  • Fani, N., King, T. Z., Jovanovic, T., Glover, E. M., Bradley, B., Choi, K., et al. (2012). White matter integrity in highly traumatized adults with and without post-traumatic stress disorder. Neuropsychopharmacology, 37(12), 2740–2746. http://doi.org/10.1038/npp.2012.146 ↩
  • Momartin, S., Silove, D., Manicavasagar, V., & Steel, Z. (2004). Comorbidity of PTSD and depression: Associations with trauma exposure, symptom severity and functional impairment in Bosnian refugees resettled in Australia. Journal of Affective Disorders, 80(2-3), 231–238. ↩

← All posts