THE REACTION TO ACUTE STRESS: is a psychogenic functional condition, of sudden installation and short duration in response to tensions of great significance.
Pathogeny: appears in an individual without another apparent mental disorder, in response to physical or psychological stress, usually remits in hours or days. It can be a devastating traumatic experience, which implies a serious threat to the safety or physical integrity of the patient. for example: natural catastrophes, accidents, wars, robberies, rapes or a sudden and threatening change in the individual's rank or social environment, for example: loss of several loved ones, house fire or other losses of great significance.
Symptoms: in an initial period is presented with: A state of dullness. Taking of conscience. Narrowing of attention Inability to assimilate stimuli. And disorientation. When the stressful situation is by its very nature continued or irreversible the symptoms begin to fade after 24 to 48 hours and are minimal after about 3 days.
The biological treatment will be dependent on the predominant symptoms where Benzodiazepines are recommended, both for initial sedation and for subsequent follow-up. The psychotherapeutic treatment of acute stress is aimed at the ventilation of the affects and images linked to the trauma, with psychotherapeutic techniques.
POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER: It arises as a delayed delayed response to a stressful event or a brief or lasting situation of an exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature that would cause widespread malaise in almost everyone. For example: Natural or man-made disasters, fighting, serious accidents, witnessing the violent death of someone, being a victim of torture, terrorism, a rape or a crime. The onset follows trauma with a latency period, whose duration varies from a few weeks to months, but rarely exceeds six months and recovery occurs in most cases.
The typical characteristics of posthumatic stress disorders are: Repeated episodes of re-exposing the trauma in the form of reminiscences or dreams. With feeling emotional numbness, detachment from others, lack of ability to respond to the environment, anhedonia, and avoidance of activities and situations that evoke trauma. They tend to take and even avoid situations that remind or suggest a trauma. There may also be dramatic and acute outbursts of fear, panic or aggression, triggered by stimuli that evoke a sudden memory, or an update or both of the trauma or the original reaction to it. Usually there is a state of vegetative hyperactivity with hypervigilance, an increase in startle reaction and insomnia. The symptoms are accompanied by anxiety and depression and suicidal ideas usually appear.
Treatment: biological requires the use of psychotropic drugs sometimes antidepressants such as tricyclics or anxiolytics. The psychotherapeutic treatment involves the design of a program of successive interviews over a period of a few weeks, as a form of follow-up to prevent the development of new pathologies, using the techniques of supportive psychotherapy.