I thought that Dr. Santiago did a nice job with a very difficult topic in today’s workshop on PTSD. I don’t know about you, but I learned a few things. He was very direct that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is not well defined in the DSM-IV & is a work-in-progress for the DSM-V. He also made the point that people in the community don’t usually panic in the face of disaster. I was surprised by this; perhaps I watch too many disaster movies?
I appreciated the research data on community and individual response to both manmade and natural disasters. I also appreciated the neurobiological components, especially his comments that medical treatment and some psychotherapy techniques may help the patient deal with immediate anxiety symptoms after trauma for the moment but interfere with the recovery.
He responded in-part to my pre-workshop question about the importance of “Psychological First Aid”. Intuitively, this process works well to help victims of a disaster cope with extraordinary stress. But does it prevent or reduce the impact of PTSD? His response was “We don’t know. Yet!” He did tell us about a major study in progress that is looking at this question.
His presentation was fun and scored high on the “Edutainment Scale” The audience asked very good questions and he was appreciative and responded well. He acknowledged that he was under strict military guidelines regarding his presentation but he still managed to answer questions directly without challenging military policy. What a tightrope that he walked? Great job!
I still wonder why he asked the press in the audience to identify themselves. Very mysterious!
What are your thoughts, impressions or questions?