DOD’s Positive Psychology Plan

A recent article by a Psychotherapist named Belleruth Naparstek entitled More Troops, More Rotations, More PTSD: Will Positive Psychology Save Our Soldiers? on the popular Huffington Post site, discusses the Department of Defenses new Positive Psychology plan, and brings up some interesting points.

What is Positive Psychology?

Positive Psychology focuses on things like authenticity, productivity, creativity, altruism, gratitude and connection with community, instead of targeting symptoms and pathology. The idea is to build on strengths. So you do things like write down 3 things that went well each day and try to assess why. You identify and ponder personal strengths and see how they can contribute to the Whole.

The hope is that by increasing the soldiers self-esteem and positive outlook prior to deployment, it will help to decrease their chances of suffering from PTSD when they return.

So what research is there to support this new program? There isn’t any supporting this usage. However, the DOD is spending $120 million to launch this new program.

The article also mentions the fact that EMDR did not make the VA’s list of approved treatments despite its being well researched and effective.

To read the entire article, click here.

Please comment below to let us know what your thoughts are regarding this new Positive Psychology program. Do you think it will be effective in preventing PTSD?

Call for Proposals: 2010 Psychology Beyond Borders Mission Awards

This could be a great opportunity to expand EMDR and make a difference to individuals in need if your proposed project meets the associated criteria!

Psychology Beyond Borders is accepting proposals from mental health professionals for 2010 Psychology Beyond Borders Mission Awards. Winners will receive $5,000 – $15,000 for one year long projects (starting in January of 2010) that meet the criteria outlined below.  Preference will be given to proposed projects with smaller budgets so that a high number of projects can be funded.

Criteria for Projects:

1. Research to contribute to the body of knowledge about what psychosocial strategies heal (or harm) in prevention, preparedness and response to large scale disaster, armed conflict or terror attacks.
2. Psychosocial service delivery, including partnerships with response teams in communities impacted by large-scale traumatic events.
3. Education programs to raise awareness about the psychosocial impacts of disaster, armed conflict or terror attacks and build community competencies in best practice methods of preparedness and intervention
4. Public policy recommendations to assist in community preparedness, response and recovery associated with large scale traumatic events.
5. Building a network to enhance international collaboration, knowledge sharing and systems for prevention, preparedness and response to disaster, armed conflict or terror attacks.

Psychology Beyond Borders seeks research and action-oriented projects that contribute to at least two of the five key areas of PBB’s mission. Projects will be evaluated on the basis of how they contribute to the organization’s mission and particularly key area # 1, research. Preference will be given to projects that combine research with more than one other key area.

In order to be eligible, applicants must be affiliated with a university or a non-profit organization.

Apply for a 2010 Psychology Beyond Borders Mission Award

Read Summaries of Past Mission Awards Projects

Army Psychologist Reveals Instructions to Misdiagnose PTSD

An article posted today by Salon.com reveals a tape recording on which a civilian psychologist working for the Army admits to a patient that he is under extreme pressure to misdiagnose PTSD in veterans.

“I will tell you something confidentially that I would have to deny if it were ever public. Not only myself, but all the clinicians up here are being pressured to not diagnose PTSD and diagnose anxiety disorder NOS [instead]. Unfortunately, yours has not been the only case … I and other [doctors] are under a lot of pressure to not diagnose PTSD. It’s not fair. I think it’s a horrible way to treat soldiers, but unfortunately, you know, now the V.A. is jumping on board, saying, ‘Well, these people don’t have PTSD,’ and stuff like that.”

He elaborated by explaining that Army medical boards were denying all of his PTSD diagnoses, claiming the veterans had not suffered a sufficient level of trauma to cause PTSD.

In addition, he admitted that the army was encouraging him to overlook brain injuries in his diagnosis. He claims that his superiors were aware of the significant number of veterans they were misdiagnosing, and told him that they were counting the number of brain injuries, but not diagnosing them because they had no plans to treat the injuries.

And this may not be an isolated incident. The article’s authors also interviewed an anonymous army psychiatrist in a different base, who makes similar claims.  These admissions add fuel to the fire that first ignited in 2008 when a psychologist working for the VA in Texas sent an email encouraging fellow mental health professionals to diagnose veterans with Adjustment Disorder rather than PTSD because the number of veterans seeking compensation was rising.

Read the full article here.

The implications of these accusations are considerable; if this is truly happening, then there could be thousands of undiagnosed victims who will not know true healing until this practice is abolished.

Do you have knowledge of this occuring?

Does Your Personality Increase Your Chances for PTSD?

A study conducted by psychologist Inge Bramsen, from Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam, measured the levels of PTSD symptoms in men that had been involved in the UN Peacekeeping Force in former Yugoslavia. As might be expected, those who had seen the most stressful events (shootings, death, bombings) experienced the most severe PTSD.

However, Bramsen also noticed a link to personality traits:  she found that individuals who possessed high amounts of negativism, paranoia, hostility or anxiety prior to deployment also showed increased levels of PTSD.

For more information on this study, please visit Psychology Today.

Male and Female Brains Respond Differently To Stress

According to a study last year by nueroscientists at the University of Pennsylvania, which used fMRI machines to monitor brain activity while subjects underwent stressful situations, the male and female brains respond dramatically differently to stress.  In men, their ‘fight or flight’ instincts are activated as a result of more blood flow to the left orbitofrontal cortex while women’s limbic systems are activated, which is thought to trigger nuturing, emotional responses.

“In the future, when physicians treat patients — especially depression, PTSD — they need to take this into account that really, gender matters,” Dr. Wang explains.

To view the video of the news report on this study, or read more about the study, please visit Science Daily.

Have these difference effected the way you treat your patients?