Acute Stress Disorder: symptoms, causes and treatment

This mental disorder is based on psychological trauma. Let's see how it develops.

Acute Stress Disorder involves exposure to a traumatic event or occurrence, and gives rise to a series of intrusive, dissociative and dissociative symptoms.It causes a series of intrusive, dissociative and avoidance symptoms, causing severe discomfort to the sufferer.

It lasts between 3 days and 1 month, and if the symptoms persist, it eventually evolves into PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this article we will know the main symptoms of this disorder, the causes that originate it and the treatments that are used.

Acute Stress Disorder: features

Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) is a disorder classified as "trauma and stressor-related disorder" in the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).

It is an abbreviated form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder); thus, while PTSD lasts at least 1 month, ASD lasts at least 3 days and at most 1 month. That is to say, when the duration of symptoms exceeds 1 month, the ASD becomes PTSD..

Symptoms

The diagnostic criteria for Acute Stress Disorder in the DSM-5 are as follows.

1. Exposure to death, serious injury, or sexual violence.

The first criterion includes exposure to an event as shocking and traumatic as a death, serious injury, or sexual violence.. It may be experienced in actual or threatened form.

The forms of exposure include four varieties or situations: it can be a direct experience of the event, being present at the event happening to others, knowing that the event has happened to a family member or close friend, or that we have been exposed to repulsive details of the event in a repeated or extreme manner.

The latter case of details would include professions such as police officers and firefighters, among others, as they are frequently exposed to death, violence and child abuse, for example.

Diverse symptoms 2.

The second criterion of Acute Stress Disorder includes the presence of 9 symptoms (or more) from among 5 categories, these being: intrusion, a negative mood, dissociation, avoidance and alertness. Symptoms begin or worsen after the traumatic event(s)..

Let us look at the 5 categories of symptoms:

2.1. Intrusion

It includes memories to the event itself; these memories are intrusive and involuntary, as well as distressing and recurrent (they keep repeating). In children, however, instead of memories, games may appear that express in some way parts of the traumatic event.

Recurrent dreams may also appear of the event or parts of it, dissociative reactions and significant psychological distress may also occur.

2.2. Negative mood

In Acute Stress Disorder another prominent symptom is the inability to experience sensations or feelings of the event or part of it. the inability to experience positive feelings or emotions..

2.3. Dissociation

In addition, an altered sense of reality or sense of self may appear, as well as an inability to remember the event itself or a part of it.

2.4. Avoidance

The person with Acute Stress Disorder tries to avoid remembering or thinking about the event, and makes significant efforts to do so.The patient also avoids remembering people, objects or conversations related to the event (i.e., external reminders of the event).

2.5. Alertness

The fifth category of symptoms includes sleep disturbances, irritable or angry behavior, hypervigilance, concentration problems, and exaggerated startle responses.

Causes

As we have seen, the causes of Acute Stress Disorder are exposure (in any of its variants) to a traumatic and shocking event or event related to death (e.g. suicide, fatal accident or murder), serious injury (e.g. being seriously injured after an accident) and sexual violence (e.g. rape).

In other words, the event must be of a certain gravity and very shocking to the person experiencing, hearing or seeing it.. Thus, the causes may be the same as those that give rise to PTSD.

Treatment

Psychological treatment of Acute Stress Disorder includes trauma exposure techniques. includes trauma exposure techniques. These are usually techniques that include among their strategies imagination training and covert (imagined) exposure, although live exposure can also be used, especially to details, objects or people related to the event.

In addition, strategies are often used to have the patient write or express the history of the event, including all possible details of the event, so that he or she can later rework the story or writing and include reassuring, relaxing or positive elements. The objective is for the patient to process in a healthy way what he/she experienced or the event to which he/she was exposed in one way or another.

Another technique used for Acute Stress Disorder is cognitive restructuringCognitive restructuring, which allows eliminating or modifying cognitive distortions and negative and/or catastrophic thoughts originated by the traumatic experience.

Pharmacological treatment

Regarding psychopharmacological treatment, anxiolytic drugs can be used in addition to the psychological interventionto alleviate the person's more physiological and anxious symptoms.

However, we must keep in mind that Acute Stress Disorder lasts at most 1 month, and therefore it is not such a long duration as to lengthen the duration of the pharmacological prescription; sometimes, even, no medication will be prescribed, it all depends on what the doctor or psychiatrist indicates after a thorough evaluation of the person.

Bibliographical references:

American Psychiatric Association -APA- (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders. Madrid: Panamericana. Belloch, A.; Sandín, B. and Ramos, F. (2010). Manual de Psicopatología. Volume I and II. Madrid: McGraw-Hill. Pérez, M.; Fernández, J.R.; Fernández, C. and Amigo, I. (2010). Guide to effective psychological treatments I and II:. Madrid: Pirámide.