Deployment Psychology Blog

CDP News: 8 September 2017

Welcome to this week’s edition of CDP News! We like to use this space to review recent happenings in and around the Center for Deployment Psychology, while also looking ahead to upcoming events. This week was a bit shorter than usual, due to the Labor Day holiday, but we’ve still got plenty to talk about.

Staff Perspective: Are we “Pushers”, or “Adaptive” with patient understanding?

Deb Nofziger, Psy.D.

I catch myself in a trap every so often, as my colleagues have, getting so caught up in selling the phases outlined in a treatment modality that I haven’t taken the time to hear the words from the patients’ perspective. And, working with an all military culture, I’ve found that when this happens I’ve usually lost the patient. I’ve used terms that simply don’t resonate with them and they are less willing to engage in whatever awesome thing I’m trying to get them to try.

CDP News: 1 September 2017

Welcome to this week’s edition of CDP News! We like to use this space to review recent happenings in and around the Center for Deployment Psychology, while also looking ahead to upcoming events. It’s only the first of September, but it’s already starting to feel like autumn here at CDP headquarters.

 

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).

By the Numbers - 28 August 2017

By the Numbers Graphic

26% 

The percentage of Veterans who meet "the criteria for an insomnia disorder," according to a new commentary article in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine -- Insomnia in Primary Care: Misreported, Mishandled, and Just Plain Missed. Approximately 10% meet those criteria in the general U.S. population (although a related article gives a range of 4% to 22%). 

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