People with this sleep problem experienced defeat, entrapment, and hopelessness.
People with this sleep problem experienced defeat, entrapment, and hopelessness.
Nightmares are linked to suicidal behaviour in people suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), new research finds.
Around 80% of people who suffer from PTSD experience nightmares.
The study found that in those who were experiencing nightmares, 62% had suicidal thoughts, plans or attempts.
Of those not experiencing nightmares only 20% had suicidal ideation.
The researchers found that nightmares tended to encourage specific types of negative thoughts including:
defeat,
entrapment,
and hopelessness.
All of these fed into suicidal thoughts and behaviour.
Dr Donna L. Littlewood, the study’s first author, said:
“PTSD increases the risk of suicidal thoughts and behavior, and our study shows that nightmares, a hallmark symptom of PTSD, may be an important treatment target to reduce suicide risk.
This study emphasizes the importance of specifically assessing and targeting nightmares within those individuals experiencing PTSD.
In addition, monitoring and targeting levels of negative cognitive appraisals such as defeat, entrapment, and hopelessness, may reduce suicidal thoughts and behaviors.”
The study involved 91 people suffering from PTSD.
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (Littlewood et al., 2016).
The potential effect of the news on levels of stress and anxiety.
The potential effect of the news on levels of stress and anxiety.
Viewing violent news events on social media can cause symptoms similar to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
A new study has found that almost one-quarter of individuals had PTSD-like symptoms from following events like 9/11 and suicide bombings on social media.
The more people viewed the events, researchers found, the greater the subsequent trauma they experienced.
The conclusion comes from a study of 189 people which was presented at the Annual Conference of the British Psychology Society being held in Liverpool.
Dr Pam Ramsden, who presented the research, said:
“The negative effects of exposure to other people’s suffering have long been recognised in roles such as professional healthcare workers.
Various studies have documented the negative psychological reactions following indirect exposure to traumatised people called vicarious traumatisation.
Social media has enabled violent stories and graphic images to be watched by the public in unedited horrific detail.
Watching these events and feeling the anguish of those directly experiencing them may impact on our daily lives.
In this study we wanted to see if people would experience longer lasting effects such as stress and anxiety, and in some cases post-traumatic stress disorders from viewing these images.”
People had symptoms of PTSD despite no real-life exposure to trauma.
Dr Ramsden continued:
“It is quite worrying that nearly a quarter of those who viewed the images scored high on clinical measures of PTSD.
There was also an increased risk for those with outgoing, extroverted personalities.
With increased access to social media and the internet via tablets and smartphones, we need to ensure that people are aware of the risks of viewing these images and that appropriate support is available for those who need it.”
Cutting-edge research explores how memories can be modified after recall.
Hope for effectively treating unwanted negative thoughts may come from new techniques that can alter vivid, long-established memories.
Unwanted negative thoughts are core components of problems like addictions and…
Cutting-edge research explores how memories can be modified after recall.
Hope for effectively treating unwanted negative thoughts may come from new techniques that can alter vivid, long-established memories.
Unwanted negative thoughts are core components of problems like addictions and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
In PTSD, people suffer from frequent intrusions of traumatic memories from, for example, a car crash or other violent event.
In addictions, people’s behaviour is strongly influenced by memories of drug-taking and these motivate their future actions.
These are more extreme versions of the everyday occurrence of having flashbacks to embarrassing moments, or other painful episodes we’ve experienced.
But, what if it were possible to adjust memories of trauma or drug use?
According to a new review of the evidence, published in the journal Biological Psychiatry, it may be possible to more effectively target a part of the learning process called reconsolidation (Schwabe et al., 2014).
The figure below shows the typical process of learning, from the initial memory — for example, a traumatic event — through to its retrieval and alteration.
Reconsolidation is the point at which a stored memory is recalled and, according to recent research, this is the point at which it may be changed.
During the reconsolidation phase, memories become particularly unstable, and so easier to change.
Memories could perhaps be modified years after they were initially laid down.
This is effectively what many therapists try to do when they treat patients suffering from unwanted intrusive thoughts.
Patients are encouraged to recall the memory, but then the therapist tries to adjust the response to that memory.
Unfortunately, the original memory is often so strong that it is very difficult to change the response.
But, with the new understanding of the role of reconsolidation, it may be possible to make this process more effective.
It will require linking the neurobiological understanding of reconsolidation with everyday clinical practices.
Research on those with PTSD, however, has already begun to show that the use of some drugs during reconsolidation can help extinguish traumatic thoughts.
Dr. Lars Schwabe, the lead author of the study, said:
“Memory reconsolidation is probably among the most exciting phenomena in cognitive neuroscience today.
It assumes that memories may be modified once they are retrieved which may give us the great opportunity to change seemingly robust, unwanted memories.”
