Tag : AUM

Washington: The presence of dissociation, a profound sense of detachment from one's sense of self or surroundings may indicate a high risk of developing severe post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, physical pain, depression, and social impairment for people who have experienced trauma, according to findings from the largest prospective study of its kind. The study, which was conducted under the direction of McLean Hospital researchers and the findings of the research were published in the journal 'American Journal of Psychiatry'. "Dissociation may help someone cope in the aftermath of trauma by providing some psychological distance from the experience, but at a high cost--dissociation is often linked with more severe psychiatric symptoms," said lead author Lauren A. M. Lebois, PhD, director of the Dissociative Disorders and Trauma Research Program at McLean Hospital and an assistant professor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. "Despite this, dissociative symptoms remain under-studied and under-diagnosed due to a relative lack of understanding in medical and clinical practice." To provide insights, Lebois and her colleagues examined information from the Advancing Understanding of RecOvery afteR traumA (AURORA) Study. The data pertained to 1,464 adults treated at 22 different emergency departments across the United States who reported whether they experienced a severe type of dissociation called derealization. Also,145 of the patients underwent brain imaging during an emotional task. Three months later, researchers collected follow-up reports of post-traumatic stress, depression, pain, anxiety symptoms, and functional impairment. The research team found that patients who reported experiencing derealization tended to have hig ...