engleski

Posttraumatic stres disorder from neurophysiology to psychotherapy croatian experience

In the beginning of the 90's, knowledge about PTSD in Croatia was pretty poor and medical textbooks of Psychiatry had only few lines about that particular diagnostical entity. Therapeutic work, as well as direct experience of relationship with the patient who has PTSD, motivated us to try to define our own therapeutic approach that we based on our experience or possibilities (one could say education). One particular motive was the fact that society made this kind of patients stigmatized. The human brain is an “organ of adaptation” to the physical and social worlds ; it is stimulated to grow and learn through positive and negative interactions. Trauma is biochemically encoded in the brain in a variety of ways, including changes in the availability and effects of neurotransmitters and neuromodulators. Changes in neurobiological mechanisms are reflected in the victim’s psychological, physiological, and interpersonal experiences. The aim of our study was to assess possible changes in brain activation in PTSD patients after two years of intensive psychotherapy in form of closed-door group analysis in heterogeneous group specially designed in our clinic for treatment of PTSD patients. The results of our research after two years of group psychotherapy show that PTSD patient's symptoms diminished and they regained adequate impulse control. Control SPECT scans was performed in two separate occasions with three-week period in-between. No differences from normal pattern were found. Possible conclusion is that SPECT findings are associated with the symptoms of PTSD. They receded together with the clinical manifestation of symptoms, so it could be used as neurobiological indicator in order to make psychotherapeutical intervention focused on symptoms and clinical remission yet neurobiologically verified, as in our study.

War-related traumas,

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