Tag Archives: trauma recovery

4 Meta-analyses of predictors of PTSD in children: An overview

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One of the main questions of child trauma psychologists is which children are most vulnerable for PTSD after a traumatic event. The answer would help us to develop interventions that address causes of distress and to focus on the children most in need.

Recently, a fourth meta-analysis on predictors of posttraumatic stress in children has been published, which makes it interesting to compare findings and methods (yes, in that order, for busy people). It gives clinicians insight in risk factors for PTSD and it shows academics what needs to be studied in the next few years.

These are the four meta-analyses I know of, published over a period of 6 years: Kahana et al. (2006), Cox et al. (2008), Alisic et al. (2011), and Trickey et al. (2012). In a nutshell, the reviews combined correlational effect sizes to see which risk factors are associated with children’s posttraumatic stress symptoms. Their methods varied, which I will summarize below, but the findings converge to a number of interesting conclusions. Continue reading →

Trauma and PTSD researchers should tweet

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Last week, I tried to compile a list of trauma and PTSD experts who are part of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) or affiliated societies. It turned out that we have only a handful of active twitterers, while the societies have thousands of members. At the last annual ISTSS conference in November, we had only two people tweeting.

It’s a missed opportunity. Twitter is a fantastic tool to build a prospering research community (see e.g., Mollett et al., 2011; Reinhardt et al., 2009;). I’ll give you some examples:

While I was searching for tweeters for my list, @raulpacheco started the #myresearch hashtag, asking people to present their research topic or question in about 120 characters. It went viral. Moreover, it was highly informative, entertaining, and instantly led to new connections and exchanges between researchers all over the world. Marc Smith made a beautiful graph of it. Continue reading →

Sleep difficulties in children exposed to trauma

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In 2012, the blog weekly features a summary or discussion of a recent scientific article on traumatic stress in children.

This week a summary of Hall Brown et al. (Oct 2011) on sleep in children after Hurricane Katrina.

 

In childhood it is normal to have some nighttime fears. Most children outgrow them. However, when fears continue to exist, they endanger sleep quality and daily functioning. One situation in which this may happen, is after traumatic exposure.

We know that adult mental health problems and sleep difficulties are related after trauma but we have only very limited data on children. Therefore, Hall Brown and colleagues studied the role of sleep problems in the maintenance of posttraumatic stress symptoms in youths who experienced Hurricane Katrina. Continue reading →

Trauma and PTSD experts on Twitter

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Are you looking for experts on traumatic stress, PTSD, or trauma recovery on Twitter? Below is a list of active ‘twexperts’ who are members of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies (ISTSS) or affiliated national societies. To follow the whole list at once, including a few less active members, see this link.

 

 

 

Hopefully, more and more ISTSS members will become enthusiastic social media users soon. Twitter is a fantastic platform for making connections, brainstorming, and sharing information. Would you like to start with Twitter? Find some good advice here (Twitter’s tips) and here (LSE Impact Blog’s tips).

Experts who have tweeted at least once in the past two months, with their Twitter bio: Continue reading →

Does intervening early after trauma help children recover?

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In 2012, the blog weekly features a summary or discussion of a recent scientific article on traumatic stress in children. This week: Kramer & Landolt (Dec 2011) about early interventions.

When children are exposed to a single traumatic event such as a car accident, a violent incident, or a disaster, many of them will recover naturally. However, a significant minority has difficulty getting back on track: 10 to 30% of the exposed children develop chronic symptoms, including Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Can we intervene early to help children recover? Systematic reviews on the efficacy of early single interventions in adults have shown either no or even harmful effects so far. In particular psychological debriefing, where survivors are asked to ventilate their emotions, cause concerns. For example, Rose et al. (2009) concluded in their meta-analysis that compulsory psychological debriefing of adults should cease.   Continue reading →