scholarly journals The effects of music relaxation and muscle relaxation techniques on sleep quality and emotional measures among individuals with posttraumatic stress disorder

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 59-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Monica Blanaru ◽  
Boaz Bloch ◽  
Limor Vadas ◽  
Zahi Arnon ◽  
Naomi Ziv ◽  
...  

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), an anxiety disorder with lifetime prevalence of 7.8%, is characterized by symptoms that develop following exposure to traumatic life events and that cause an immediate experience of intense fear, helplessness or horror. PTSD is marked by recurrent nightmares typified by the recall of intrusive experiences and by extended disturbance throughout sleep. Individuals with PTSD respond poorly to drug treatments for insomnia. The disadvantages of drug treatment for insomnia underline the importance of non-pharmacological alternatives. Thus, the present study had three aims: first, to compare the efficiency of two relaxation techniques (muscular relaxation and progressive music relaxation) in alleviating insomnia among individuals with PTSD using both objective and subjective measures of sleep quality; second, to examine whether these two techniques have different effects on psychological indicators of PTSD, such as depression and anxiety; and finally, to examine how initial PTSD symptom severity and baseline emotional measures are related to the efficiency of these two relaxation methods. Thirteen PTSD patients with no other major psychiatric or neurological disorders participated in the study. The study comprised one seven-day running-in, no-treatment period, followed by two seven-day experimental periods. The treatments constituted either music relaxation or muscle relaxation techniques at desired bedtime. These treatments were randomly assigned. During each of these three experimental periods, subjects' sleep was continuously monitored with a wrist actigraph (Ambulatory Monitoring, Inc.), and subjects were asked to fill out several questionnaires concerned with a wide spectrum of issues, such as sleep, depression, and anxiety. Analyses revealed a significant increase in objective and subjective sleep efficiency and a significant reduction in depression level following music relaxation. Moreover, following music relaxation, a highly significant negative correlation was found between improvement in objective sleep efficiency and reduction in depression scale. The study‘s findings provide evidence that music relaxation at bedtime can be used as treatment for insomnia among individuals with PTSD.

2009 ◽  
Vol 57 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-42 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lena Schirmer ◽  
Anja Mehnert ◽  
Angela Scherwath ◽  
Barbara Schleimer ◽  
Frank Schulz-Kindermann ◽  
...  

Die in mehreren Studien gefundenen kognitiven Störungen bei Tumorpatienten nach Chemotherapie werden zumeist mit der Zytostatikaneurotoxizität assoziiert. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird der Zusammenhang von Angst, Depression und Posttraumatischer Belastungsstörung mit der kognitiven Leistungsfähigkeit bei Frauen mit Mammakarzinom untersucht. Insgesamt wurden 76 Brustkrebspatientinnen fünf Jahre nach Abschluss der onkologischen Behandlung mit neuropsychologischen Testverfahren sowie mit der Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – Deutsche Version (HADS-D) und der Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Checklist – Civilian Version (PCL-C) untersucht: 23 nach Standard- und 24 nach Hochdosistherapie sowie 29 nach Brustoperation und Strahlentherapie als Vergleichsgruppe. Signifikante Zusammenhänge sind vor allem zwischen kognitiven Funktionen und Intrusionssymptomen einer Posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (PTBS) festzustellen. Bei Patientinnen nach Standardtherapie weisen Intrusionen der PTBS einen moderaten Zusammenhang mit der globalen kognitiven Beeinträchtigung auf. Die Ergebnisse der Studie deuten auf multidimensionale Einfluss- und moderierende Faktoren bei der Entwicklung kognitiver Defizite bei Brustkrebspatientinnen nach onkologischer Therapie hin.


2010 ◽  
Vol 218 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Slawomira J. Diener ◽  
Herta Flor ◽  
Michèle Wessa

Impairments in declarative memory have been reported in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Fragmentation of explicit trauma-related memory has been assumed to impede the formation of a coherent memorization of the traumatic event and the integration into autobiographic memory. Together with a strong non-declarative memory that connects trauma reminders with a fear response the impairment in declarative memory is thought to be involved in the maintenance of PTSD symptoms. Fourteen PTSD patients, 14 traumatized subjects without PTSD, and 13 non-traumatized healthy controls (HC) were tested with the California Verbal Learning Test (CVLT) to assess verbal declarative memory. PTSD symptoms were assessed with the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale and depression with the Center of Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale. Several indices of the CVLT pointed to an impairment in declarative memory performance in PTSD, but not in traumatized persons without PTSD or HC. No group differences were observed if recall of memory after a time delay was set in relation to initial learning performance. In the PTSD group verbal memory performance correlated significantly with hyperarousal symptoms, after concentration difficulties were accounted for. The present study confirmed previous reports of declarative verbal memory deficits in PTSD. Extending previous results, we propose that learning rather than memory consolidation is impaired in PTSD patients. Furthermore, arousal symptoms may interfere with successful memory formation in PTSD.


2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yaru Chen ◽  
Xin Huang ◽  
Chengyuan Zhang ◽  
Yuanyuan An ◽  
Yiming Liang ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has affected more than 5 million people around the world and killed more than 300,000 people; thus, it has become a global public health emergency. Our objective was to investigate the mental health of hospitalized patients diagnosed with COVID-19. Methods The PTSD checklist for DSM-5 (PCL-5), Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), Generalized Anxiety Disorder Scale (GAD-7), Trauma Exposure Scale, abbreviated version of the Connor–Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC-10), Perceived Social Support Scale (PSSS) and Demographic Questionnaire were used to examine posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, anxiety, trauma exposure, resilience and perceived social support among 898 patients who were hospitalized after being diagnosed with COVID-19 in China. The data were analyzed with t tests, one-way ANOVA and multivariable logistic regression analysis. Results The results showed that the prevalence of PTSD, depression and anxiety was 13.2, 21.0 and 16.4%, respectively. Hospitalized patients who were more impacted by negative news reports, had greater exposure to traumatic experiences, and had lower levels of perceived social support reported higher PTSD, depression and anxiety. Conclusions Effective professional mental health services should be designed to support the psychological wellbeing of hospitalized patients, especially those who have severe disease, are strongly affected by negative news and have high levels of exposure to trauma.


2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 19298 ◽  
Author(s):  
Malik Ait-Aoudia ◽  
Pierre P. Levy ◽  
Eric Bui ◽  
Salvatore Insana ◽  
Capucine de Fouchier ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
pp. 003022282090965
Author(s):  
Yudi Zhang ◽  
Xiaoming Jia

Previous studies have sporadically explored the effect of various bonds on the mental health of shiduers (i.e., parents who lost their only child). However, research has rarely classified different bonds to systematically describe their effects. This study administered a self-compiled questionnaire, the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, the Zung Self-Rating Anxiety Scale, the posttraumatic stress disorder Checklist, the Prolonged Grief Questionnaire, the Posttraumatic Growth Inventory, and the Adult Dispositional Hope Scale to 466 shiduers. The commemoration rituals that occur soon after the loss predict a lower level of posttraumatic stress disorder. Similarly, the commemoration rituals that occur on special days predict lower levels of depression and anxiety. In contrast, the continuation of commemoration rituals on ordinary days predicts higher levels of depression and prolonged grief. Support from family members and relatives, other shiduers, and nonshiduer friends are all beneficial to shiduers’ mental health.


2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maj Hansen ◽  
Tonny Elmose Andersen ◽  
Cherie Armour ◽  
Ask Elklit ◽  
Sabina Palic ◽  
...  

Traumatic events pose great challenges on mental health services in scarcity of specialist trauma clinicians and services. Simple short screening instruments for detecting adverse psychological responses are needed. Several brief screening instruments have been developed. However, some are limited, especially in relation to reflecting the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis. Recently, several studies have challenged pre-existing ideas about PTSD’s latent structure. Factor analytic research currently supports two four factor models. One particular model contains a dysphoria factor which has been associated with depression and anxiety. The symptoms in this factor have been hailed as less specific to PTSD. The scope of this article is therefore to present a short screening instrument, based on this research; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – 8 items. The PTSD-8 is shown to have good psychometric properties in three independent samples of whiplash patients (n=1710), rape victims (n=305), and disaster victims (n=516). Good test-rest reliability is also shown in a pilot study of young adults from families with alcohol problems (n=56).


2018 ◽  
Vol 23 ◽  
pp. 215658721875651 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dawson Church ◽  
Dennis House

Clinical Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT) is an evidence-based treatment for depression and anxiety. The current study sought to elucidate the relationship between posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety in a nonclinical population. The sample (N = 81) comprised participants at five 2-day EFT workshops. All groups used an EFT protocol called Borrowing Benefits, in which the group facilitator works with a single client while other participants self-apply EFT. Participants were assessed on 9 specific conditions as well as on the breadth (Positive Symptom Total [PST]) and depth (General Symptom Index [GSI]) of psychological distress. Physical pain and addictive cravings were also assessed. Significant reductions were observed in all measures (P < .03). Associations between PST, GSI, and PTSD were significant (P < .026). Participants maintained all gains at 6-month follow-up (P < .02) with the exception of the Hostility subscale, while Cohen’s d = 0.54 indicated a moderate treatment effect for PTSD. The relationship between psychological and physiological conditions identified in this study is consistent with that found in other studies. Group treatment is cost-effective and efficient, and the efficacy of EFT in groups indicates the utility of the Borrowing Benefits technique.


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