Associated Conditions of PTSD (Nursing)

00:01 So not everything is post-traumatic stress disorder.

00:04 There are other disorders that are related to PTSD.

00:10 For example, acute stress disorder.

00:13 When a person has acute stress disorder, we usually see the responses within a month of the experience.

00:22 If we are still seeing the responses after the month, then we start thinking this may have moved into PTSD.

00:32 But if a person is in a situation where there's a car accident, or they are asked to leave their building, because maybe there's a bomb scare, and they start having that hypervigilance, or that anxiety, or that orienting, or that startle, we say, "Well, let's do some debriefing." And let's understand that, at that time, when that was called in this is the response that was done, and you start working through that, so that they can understand that that event has ended, and that they are safe.

01:20 Sometimes with children, we see that there is an inability to connect with others.

01:26 And that often comes when they have not been treated well as babies, and they have a Reactive attachment disorder.

01:35 It's related to PTSD, because we're going to see some of those similar symptoms, that orienting, that defensive response.

01:44 But it really is speaking more to their inability to connect with others.

01:53 There's also Disinhibited social engagement.

01:57 Now, we see this in childhood, where a child will engage in interactions with strangers and other adults that they don't even know.

02:08 Again, this is going to be an attachment kind of disorder, where they're disinhibition, They don't have an idea that safety is the people that you know, instead, they are engaging in interactions with strangers.

02:26 Most commonly, what we see with the children are adjustment disorders.

02:31 Now, adjustment disorders are maladaptive emotional responses.

02:36 And they usually happen about three months after a stressful event.

02:41 For example, parents separating or getting divorced.

02:45 And it only lasts usually about six months or so.

02:49 And so we are looking at this child having a disorder that is trying to adjust to a new norm.

02:59 There's one thing that is related to PTSD and it's something that we can be seeing, I have had the opportunity to see this a number of time and to personally witness it.

03:13 It's called Psychogenic nonepileptic seizures.

03:17 This is when a stress level in an individual reaches a point and the person presents as though they are having a seizure.

03:29 They may not fall down.

03:31 But every other thing that you're seeing with this patient looks as though this is seizure activity.