How Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Affects Writing And Learning

By age 16, significant – one might even say “alarming” – numbers of students are demonstrating signs of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Students with PTSD are more likely to develop a range of problems, from delinquent behavior to eating disorders to substance abuse to dropping out. For the school-based professional, the ability to recognize these symptoms and warning signs is essential. Emphasizing prevention as well as intervention, Identifying, Assessing, and Treating PTSD at School clearly defines PTSD, explains its adverse affects on children’s academic and social-emotional skills, and offers expert guidance on how to recognize student needs and provide appropriate services. This volume, designed as a practical, easy-to-use reference for school psychologists and other educational professionals: (1) Makes the case for why school psychologists and their colleagues need to be more prepared, willing, and able to identify and serve students with PTSD. (2) Identifies the causes, prevalence, and associated conditions of PTSD. (3) Provides a review of screening, referral, and diagnostic assessment processes. (4) Reviews appropriate treatments for students with PTSD. Today’s youth live in an increasingly uncertain world, and school psychologists, counselors, social workers, and general and special education personnel will find Identifying, Assessing, and Treating PTSD at School an invaluable resource in their practices.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric illness that can occur in anyone who has experienced a life-threatening or violent event. The trauma can be due to war, terrorism, torture, natural disasters, violence, or rape. In PTSD the brain areas that are likely to be affected are the hippocampus (memory), amygdala (fear association), the prefrontal cortex (cognitive processing), and the ascending reticular activating system (arousal). The chemical of interest is norepinephrine, which is released during a stressful event and is part of the fight-or-flight response meant to mobilize the body to action.The objective of this title is to outline the neurobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder and provide treatment strategies for clinicians. The chapter material from this book has evolved from a seminar on PTSD held recently under the auspices of the VA Boston Healthcare System, Boston University Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. We propose a book that will focus on the epidemiology, neurobiology, MRI studies, animal models, arousal and sleep issues, clinical trials, and treatment strategies for clinicians. Treatment will cover such topics as guidelines for treating posttraumatic stress disorder, PTSD and the use of mental health services, cognitive intervention therapy, and large scale clinical trials in PTSD. This collection will be a vital source of information to clinicians and neuroscientists.

This tool kit describes how trauma exposure impacts students' performance and behavior and provides a compendium of programs for schools to support the long-term recovery of traumatized students. It also compares the programs with one another.

Many existing treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have clients focus on a worst-identified traumatic experience, which can be challenging for individuals with repeated trauma exposure. It is assumed that, by focusing on the worst-identified trauma, individuals will develop skills that improve their ability to cope with other, less emotionally-provocative incidents. Yet to be determined, however, is whether an event's personal significance affects treatment outcomes. The present study aimed to evaluate how individual differences in event centrality (i.e., the extent to which an event impacts one's identity) influenced the effectiveness of a 3-session expressive writing (EW) intervention for posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS). EW has been shown to reduce PTSS severity and negative trauma-related appraisals are believed to mediate this relationship. Due to high attrition at the 3-week follow-up assessment (71.6%), main study hypotheses were examined in a modified intent-to-treat sample (N = 159) using data from baseline to post-treatment. Contrary to expectation, no within- or between-group differences in negative appraisals across sessions were observed. Changes in negative appraisals did not mediate the relationship between written disclosure condition (EW vs. control) and changes in PTSS severity, although negative appraisals were significantly related to PTSS severity. Sensitivity analyses with study completers yielded similar findings. Event centrality did not moderate those direct or indirect effects. A supplementary analysis using follow-up data from study completers (N = 38) revealed no within- or between-group differences in negative appraisals or PTSS severity across time. Post hoc survival analyses showed similar rates of attrition across conditions and attrition was not predicted by demographic characteristics or reactions to study participation. Implications and study limitations are discussed.

Expressive writing is a therapeutic intervention requiring individuals to write about distressing events and their emotional responses to these experiences (Pennebaker & Beall, 1986). The use of expressive writing has improved behavioural, physiological, and psychological outcomes in many populations, including individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Baikie & Wilhelm, 2005). Greater self-disclosure on such writing tasks has been associated with higher perceived benefits and helpfulness (Brewin & Lennard, 1999). Researchers have investigated how expressive writing protocols can be utilized online to increase levels of self-disclosure when writing about traumatic experiences and, consequently, improve PTSD symptom outcomes. Researchers have not yet assessed for modality-based differences (e.g., typed vs. hand-written expressive writing) for therapeutic efficacy or emotional engagement. The present investigation examined whether 1) typed and hand-written expressive writing equally reduced PTSD symptoms; and 2) emotional engagement affected the efficacy of expressive writing in reducing PTSD symptoms. A community and student sample (n = 29) with clinically significant PTSD symptoms completed the trial. Participants were randomized to one of four conditions with different writing modalities (i.e., typed or hand-written) and paradigms (i.e., control or expressive writing). In one session, participants were administered three 15-minute writing tasks and self-report questionnaires evaluating aspects of emotion (i.e., recognition, expression, trait negative emotionality) and PTSD symptom severity. An optional 7-day follow-up questionnaire re-evaluating PTSD symptom severity was also administered to participants. Each experimental group had non-significant decreases in PTSD symptoms from pre- to post-intervention, these changes being dependant on pre-intervention symptom severity; however, alexithymia, dissociation (i.e., attentional dissociation and dissociative amnesia), negative affect, emotional approach coping, and the presence of a learning disability did affect symptom changes, and when these factors were considered the experimental conditions significantly differed in their effect on symptom outcomes. In conclusion, findings of the current trial suggest that a day-intensive session of expressive writing neither reduces PTSD symptoms nor differs in efficacy based on its method of completion unless emotional engagement with the task is considered. Further investigation into how learning disabilities and emotional predispositions affect engagement with expressive writing is warranted to clarify its efficacy in clinical PTSD populations.

Provides a unique occasion for teachers, scholars, and other professional to begin an open, serious conversation about the healing power of writing.

Trauma in Adult and Higher Education: Conversations and Critical Reflections invites readers to think deeply about the experiences of trauma they witness in and outside of the classroom, because trauma alters adult learners' experience by disrupting identity, and interfering with memory, relationships and creativity. Through essays, narratives, and cultural critiques, the reader is invited to rethink education as more than upskilling and content mastery; education is a space where dialogue has the potential to unlock an individual’s sense of power and self-mastery that enables them to make sense of violence, tragedy and trauma. Trauma in Adult and Higher Education: Conversations and Critical Reflections reveals the lived experiences of educators struggling to integrate those who have experienced trauma into their classrooms - whether this is in prison, a yoga class, or higher education. As discourses and programming to support diversity intensifies, it is central that educators acknowledge and respond to the realities of the students before them. Advocates of traumasensitive curriculum acknowledge that trauma shows up as a result of the disproportionate amount of violence and persistent insecurity that specific groups face. Race, gender, sexual orientation, ability, and immigration are all factors that expose individuals to higher levels of potential trauma. Trauma has changed the conversations about what education is, and how it should happen. These conversations are resulting in new approaches to teaching and learning that address the lived experiences of pain and trauma that our adult learners bring into the classroom, and the workforce. This collection includes a discussion of salient implications and practices for adult and higher education administrators and faculty who desire to create an environment that includes individuals who have experienced trauma, and perhaps prevents the cycle of violence.