Blog posts with the tag "Treatment"

Staff Perspective: My client says marijuana helps with PTSD symptoms. That can’t be the case… right?

Josh Gray, Ph.D.

If a client proclaimed during a session that drugs with abuse potential are beneficial in managing PTSD symptoms, most therapists would identify this as cause for concern. When drugs with abuse potential are used in response to PTSD symptoms, they generally maintain or exacerbate the condition. For example, the classic client with alcohol use disorder and PTSD drinks to avoid trauma-related thoughts and reduce heightened arousal symptoms (e.g., hypervigilance).

Staff Perspective: Cracking the Code of Sleep Log Scoring

Providers of behavioral treatment of sleep disorders, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (CBT-I) or Brief Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia (BBTI), need to score sleep logs efficiently and accurately to implement strategies. Moreover, we must teach patients how to score their own logs so that they in turn can implement sleep schedule adjustments without our guidance. It’s not surprising, then, that a frequent topic that arises in consultations concerns the use of sleep logs, specifically, learning steps for how to score logs and getting experience doing so.

By the Numbers - 14 August 2017

By the Numbers Graphic

83%

The percentage of military treatment facilities (MTFs) that offer complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) services, according to a recent report from the RAND Corporation -- Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Military Health System. The most common services offered are relaxation therapy, acupuncture, progressive muscle relaxation, guided imagery, and chiropractic.

Staff Perspective: Advances in the Treatment of Combined Borderline Personality Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Jeffery Mann, Psy.D.

There is a growing body of evidence that examines and attempts to address the challenges of working with a group of individuals presenting with a combination of Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), Suicidal/Non-Suicidal Self-directed Injury (NSSDI), and PTSD. These symptoms combine to create a cycle that is difficult to break. At a fundamental level, the individual struggles to manage their emotions effectively and can often be impulsive. Impulsive behavior is a reaction to overwhelming emotional experiences and the overwhelming emotion often elicits suicidal/NSSDI behaviors.

Staff Perspective: Identification and Assessment of Moral Injury

To facilitate a discussion about how to identify and assess for moral injury, let’s review the account below written by Ms. Tessa Poppe, who served in the Army National Guard as a Military Police Officer for seven years and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2010. It’s titled, When the Hardest Thing is Doing Nothing: Moral Injury Caused by Inaction in War and appeared in Foreign Policy on 12 June 2015. Through her narrative, Ms. Poppe paints a picture of a moral dilemma when she felt paralyzed about what to do while deployed and the inner turmoil associated with it. 

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