New Insights Into Secondary Prevention in Post-Traumatic Stress
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PAGES_ 12_AG_1004_BA.qxd:DCNS#50 30/08/11 16:04 Page 301 Pharmacological aspects New insights into secondary prevention in post-traumatic stress disorder Joseph Zohar, MD; Alzbeta Juven-Wetzler, MD; Rachel Sonnino, BA; Shlomit Cwikel-Hamzany, MD; Evgenya Balaban, MD; Hagit Cohen, PhD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a disor- der where patients are haunted by their traumatic mem- ories. For a patient with PTSD, it is as if time has stopped. It could be 10, 20 (or even more) years after the exposure, yet he/she is still there, reliving, re-experienc- ing, and retraumatized by the event which changed his or her life so dramatically. What is a traumatic event which could lead to PTSD? In DSM-IV, such an event was defined as “an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or seri- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is unique amongst ous injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or psychiatric disorders in two ways. Firstly, there is usually a others.”1 However, as such a description might leave too very clear point of onset—the traumatic event. The second much room for different interpretations, the intention in unique feature of PTSD is that it is characterized by a fail- DSM-5 is to tighten this up somewhat. One suggestion is ure of the normal response to resolve. Given these two to specify that the event involves death, serious physical characteristics, PTSD appears a good candidate for sec- injury, or sexual violation (either actual or threatened), ondary prevention, ie, interventions immediately after the and that this exposure takes the form of a personal expe- trauma. Evidence available starting from current concepts rience, first-hand witnessing of the event as it occurred and contemporary research of potential secondary pre- to others, learning of the event as it occurred to a close vention interventions are presented. Common practices in friend or relative, or repeated exposure to the event as the aftermath of trauma such as debriefing and benzodi- it occurred to others (such as to police officers or para- azepines need to be carefully considered, taking into medics repeatedly exposed to the traumatic experiences account their potential harm to the spontaneous recovery of others). process, and the trajectory of PTSD, and not only judging them according to their immediate (comforting) effects. A discussion of the balance required between aiding recov- Keywords: post-traumatic stress disorder; prevention; spontaneous recovery; cor- ery but not interfering with the potent natural resolution tisol; animal model; HPA axis of symptoms (that is expected in most cases), along with Author affiliations: Department of Psychiatry, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel potential avenues of future research, are presented. Results Hashomer, Israel (Joseph Zohar, Alzbeta Juven-Wetzler, Rachel Sonnino, Shlomit Cwikel-Hamzany, Evgenya Balaban); Anxiety and Stress Research Unit, Faculty of of a small pilot study with a single intervention of hydro- Health Sciences, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer Sheva, Israel (Hagit Cohen) cortisone immediately after trauma appear to be promis- Address for correspondence: Prof Joseph Zohar, Psychiatry A, Chaim Sheba ing, and clearly indicate the need for further studies. Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 52621, Israel © 2011, LLS SAS Dialogues Clin Neurosci. 2011;13:301-309. (e-mail: [email protected]) Copyright © 2011 LLS SAS. All rights reserved 301 www.dialogues-cns.org PAGES_ 12_AG_1004_BA.qxd:DCNS#50 30/08/11 16:04 Page 302 Pharmacological aspects An important part of the definition of PTSD is the time What are the risk factors for PTSD? requirement—at least a month following the trauma— which means that one cannot diagnose PTSD during the Pretraumatic risk factors first month after the exposure. Acute PTSD is consid- ered if the symptoms last more than a month and up to A meta-analysis of risk factors6 proposed trauma inten- 3 months (if it is more than 3 months, it is defined as sity as an important factor, along with previous trau- chronic PTSD—Figure 1). Beyond the actual presence matic history,7 family history of psychiatric disorders,8,9 of the relevant symptoms, the sixth criterion for clinical personal history of emotional or psychiatric disorders diagnosis of PTSD is clinically significant distress or prior to the trauma, history of substance abuse, and impairment of functioning, which is a common denom- poorer intellectual abilities.10 In a semiprospective study inator for all anxiety disorders. conducted by our group,11 we compared 2362 war veter- In the minds of many, PTSD is related to mega-events ans who developed PTSD with an equal number of war such as 9/11, tsunami, war, etc. However, the major con- veterans who did not develop PTSD. Comparisons were tributors to PTSD are actually daily civilian events, such made on predrafting personal factors and pretrauma as car accidents, work-related accidents, violence, and army characteristics. The intention was to find out armed robbery, to name a few. PTSD can also occur after whether careful predrafting cognitive and behavioral exposure to a serious illness (for example myocardial screening would help to predict who will develop PTSD. infarction). In modern civilian life, exposure to traumatic It turned out that neither behavioral assessment, includ- events (that might lead to PTSD) is prevalent. In fact, ing measures such as socioeconomic background and about 50% of the (Western) population would have motivation to serve, nor training were found to predict been exposed to a traumatic event that might later on PTSD. Hence, predraft screening done at age 17 failed lead to PTSD during their lifetime.2 to predict who would develop PTSD either during their What is unique about PTSD is that the vast majority mandatory service (age 18 to 21), or during reserve (80% to 90%) of those exposed to this type of trauma duties (age 21 to 49). The only exception was a border- will eventually adapt. Only 10% to 20% become fixated line significance related to intelligence, which in any case on the event, and develop PTSD.3 If 50% of the popula- measures the ability of individuals to adapt, and is there- tion are exposed at some point of their life to traumatic fore believed to be a nonspecific mediator. events, and if on average 15% of them will develop PTSD, then the expected prevalence of PTSD in the Post-traumatic risk factors population would be 7.5%. Indeed, in the National Comorbidity Survey,2 the prevalence was found to be The intensity and magnitude of the immediate response 6.8%, while in earlier studies the prevalence ranged to the traumatic event are associated with increased risk from 7.8% to 8.7%3-5 (Figure 2). of developing PTSD. Reactions like dissociative symp- Trauma 8.75 4 0 ~1 3 6 20 40 7.9 7.83 Month Months Months Years Years { Acute % stress disorder { Acute PTSD { Chronic PTSD { Delayed-onset PTSD Figure 2. Lifetime prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder in the com- Figure 1. Time course and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) subtypes. munity.3-5 302 PAGES_ 12_AG_1004_BA.qxd:DCNS#50 30/08/11 16:04 Page 303 Secondary prevention in PTSD - Zohar et al Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience - Vol 13 . No. 3 . 2011 toms, panic-like response, extreme withdrawal, psy- persistently re-experienced through recurrent and intru- chotic-like symptoms, and suicidality all raise red flags sive distressing recollections and/or recurrent distress- regarding the person's vulnerability to developing ing dreams, acting or feeling as if the traumatic event PTSD.11 were recurring (including dissociative flashback episodes) and intense psychological distress and physi- Why is PTSD suitable for prevention? ological reactivity upon exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of “the event.” PTSD is different from other psychiatric disorders, in that Thus, the core pathology of PTSD is the re-experienc- it has a very clear point of onset. In most cases, the trau- ing—the distressing recollections, flashbacks, nightmares, matic event is also the point of onset of symptoms. The etc. One way to describe this is that patients with PTSD second unique feature of PTSD is that it is characterized are haunted by the memory of the event. For them, the by a failure of the normal response to disappear. The past is always present; it is as if the clock has stopped, expected response after exposure to a traumatic event is and they are constantly either reliving the experience, or to experience shock, horror fear, terror, grief, etc. This is fighting very hard not to be exposed to triggers which a normal response to an abnormal situation. It becomes might set off a flashback. The avoidance, numbing, and a disorder when this normal response continues (accord- increased arousal would then be secondary phenomena. ing to DSM-IV, for more than a month). Moreover, as One question would be regarding the consolidation of mentioned earlier, the vast majority (80% to 90%) expe- the traumatic event. Consolidation is the transition from rience spontaneous recovery from these symptoms, and unstable to stable memory, and the question is, if we hence, one way to conceptualize PTSD is as a disorder could prevent this consolidation, whether or not it would where there is a failure to recover (Figure 3). If PTSD is be beneficial. a failure to recover, then our obligation, as clinicians, to When individuals with traumatic brain injury with amne- the patient is primum non nocere (“First, do no harm” ), sia of the traumatic events were compared with those ie, not to interfere with the potent spontaneous recovery without amnesia, it was found that 6% of those with process which usually takes place.