Fixing a Hole: Refining the Current Approach to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder for the Emotionally Numb, Avoidant and Dissociative

Abstract

This thesis examines PTSD as a whole, emphasizing a shift in focus to specific symptoms of PTSD: emotional numbness, avoidance and dissociation. The new DSM-V proposal on PTSD specifically emphasizes the importance of these symptoms by splitting them into two separate and required criteria. Although there are currently efficacious treatments for this disorder, a large minority continue to exhibit clinical level symptoms. This minority deal with more complex PTSD and are correlated with emotional numbness, avoidance and dissociation both as a predictor and perpetuation variable. The funds which are going to pretreatments, shown to have little empirical data, should go to research on newer experiments involving either neurobiology or psychopharmacology when considering new treatments helpful to more complex PTSD patients.