Posttraumatic stress disorder
Introduction
The aim of this paper is to provide a thorough review of a scholarly article. Thus, this assessment of the article will illustrate how fear conditioning is at the core of the development of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety-related, mental disorder that can result from experiencing a life-threatening stressor (e.g., a car accident, natural disaster, war and combat, and all forms of abuse (Meyers et al., 2013).The source chosen are used to support how the formation of PTSD symptoms such as fear, anger, and anxiety are a product of classical conditioning (fear conditioning)(Duits et al., 2015). Such conditioning is maintained through the process of operant conditioning principles, a process of reinforcement of maladaptive coping skills, emotional numbing, social withdrawal, and avoidance of any form traumatic stimuli (e.g., places, smells, persons involved with the experienced trauma). All of which have shown to exacerbate PTSD symptoms (McLean & Foa, 2011)
Article Review
In the article entitled:, “Prolonged exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: A review of evidence and dissemination”, the authors discuss a wide breadth of research studies focuses on the cognitive based treatments for Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), specifically exposure therapy (McLean & Foa, 2011). Prolonged exposure is a particular type of exposure therapy that is a common evidence-based treatment for PTSD (McLean & Foa, 2011).The authors find emotional processing theory to be the main theoretical lens used to explore development and treatment of PTSD (McLean & Foa, 2011).
The fear acquisition is best explained through Pavlov’s classical conditioning. Exposure treatment uses classical conditioning as a guide to eliminate fear based responses. The trauma would be considered the unconditioned stimulus (US), that has attached itself to neutral stimuli such as smells, sounds, and people. Once a non-harmful stimulus forms an association with the traumatic event it is recorded in one’s memory, posing the risk of re-experiencing emotional distress of the trauma when exposed to a neutral event that may remind the individual of the original trauma experienced (McLean & Foa, 2011).
Extinction learning, which aims to re-condition or legitimate irrational fears, is done through changing one’s expectation that a certain object or person will produce anxiety and/or fear associated with a particular stimulus that was neutral before the traumatic situation. Extinction occurs through the repetition of a safe stimulus, establishing a new association with perceived threatened stimuli to decrease fear (McLean & Foa, 2011).Exposure therapy is based on the process of fear conditioning, a form of classical and operant conditioning. This type of treatment involves repeated expose of fears in the shape of "thoughts, images, objects, situations or actions” (McLean & Foa ,2011) in the absence of the expected negative outcome, in order to reduce pathological fear, and anxiety” (McLean & Foa, 2011).
Conclusion
References:
Duits, P., Cath, D., Lissek, S., Hox, J., Hamm, A., Engelhard, I., . . . Baas, J. (2015). Updated meta-analysis of classical fear conditioning in the anxiety disorders. Depression and anxiety, 32(4), 239.
McLean, C. P., & Foa, E. B. (2011). Prolonged exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder: a review of evidence and dissemination. Expert Rev Neurother, 11(8), 1151-1163. doi:10.1586/ern.11.94
Meyers, L. L., Strom, T. Q., Leskela, J., Thuras, P., Kehle-Forbes, S. M., & Curry, K. T. (2013). Service utilization following participation in cognitive processing therapy or prolonged exposure therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder. Mil Med, 178(1), 95-99. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23356126
