Child Psychopathology Trauma Treatment of anxiety Videotape: Uncontrollable thoughts Reading for today: Chapter 7

Post-Traumatic Stress in children John was camping on Tilley’s point when Swiss Air 111 went down. He now has PTSD. Diagnostic criteria: –event(s) with real or threatened death or serious injury –reexperiencing event through intrusive thoughts, dreams, symbols of event, repetitiveee play –numbing of responsiveness and avoidance of stimuli –increased arousal- sleep, concentration, startle, irritable –symptoms for 1 month –clinically significant distress or impairment

Helping Children Acknowledge frightening aspects of disaster Parents need to acknowledge fear, but model coping with trauma How does the child experience the stimuli? What does a child see or hear during or after the disaster? What are the images? Child’s age? Talking through these experiences is helpful Blame, timing, previous traumas, heightened state of arousal, all need to be considered Figure 7.2: Child PTSD after Hurricane Andrew

Treatment of anxiety in children Behavior therapy: Exposure to feared stimulus (Gradual vs. Flooding; Real vs. Imagined) –often paired with relaxation as in systematic desensitization (opposite of arousal/fear) Cognitive Behavior Therapy: Changing maladaptive thoughts, thought control Medications, esp. selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI’s) such as prozac Family interventions may have more dramatic and lasting results Combinations of treatments most effective

Thought control and treating panic disorder Videotape modeling treatment for panic disorder