News Note to colleagues: please stop saying post traumatic stress is incurable

[StormySea]

I'm interested in hearing people's reactions to an article I came across in The Huffington Post entitled, "Note to Colleagues: Please Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress is Incurable." I tried to include a link, but the system that it was spam. Do you agree that PTSD is curable?

 

[Mashed Potatoes]

I'm interested in hearing people's reactions to an article I came across in The Huffington Post entit...

for me, "curable"... No I don't know about that. I think it's more of something you learn to live with the effects of. My PTSD is co mingled with some of the usual suspects... depression, anxiety / panic attacks but during the traumatic events I suffered over 8 concussions leaving me with an acquired brain injury. From what I'm told the latter isn't curable. I have to be careful and not do anything jarring to avoid headaches, and take precautions to avoid any further head trauma in any way. So if those things all caused me to have PTSD, I don't think in my opinion, for me, it is curable. I am excited to hear others opinions as well. <3 thanks for posting this. I'm glad I could contribute.

 

[Friday]

Nope.

Well-managed & asymptomatic are different than cured.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

PTSD is curable?

No. It is manageable and it can be managed to a point thay you don't meet the diagnosis criteria so maybe that is what people are talking about. That they don't have the symptoms that meet the diagnosis criteria but PTSD isn't cureable and another major stressor or trauma or even not managing well can cause it to come back for a vengence.

That is my understanding. So, cureable to me means never come back again and there is no way to say 100% it would never come back again. Not from my understanding. Though I am not the most educated on about this.

 

[Suzetig]

Research shows that the majority of people who meet the diagnosis criteria for PTSD do go on to recover fully, many without treatment so yes I do think PTSD is curable. I don't think all PTSD is curable, and I don't think not being "cured" is a sign of failure on the individuals part and yes, trauma can rear it's head again but many people do heal from PTSD.

 

[StarChild]

One moment... Is this just a typo, or not? You first mention Post Traumatic Stress:

Stop Saying Post Traumatic Stress is Incurable."

But then you ask whether Post Traumatic Stress DISORDER = PTSD is curable or not... Are you aware, that you are talking / asking about two different things? Which is very important to note?

Do you agree that PTSD is curable?

PTS and PTSD are not the same.

 

[StormySea]

One moment... Is this just a typo, or not? You first mentions Post Traumatic Stress:

But then you a...

:) It's true. I have read about how the two terms are referring to different things. I'm pretty sure the article is talking about PTSD. For whatever reason, it goes back and forth between using the term post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic stress disorder.

 

[anthony]

Even for PTS, I would still not use cure or incurable. Treatable is the more accurate term.

Scholars are making it harder with their increasing definition expansion of terms within dictionaries too.

Cure can mean: recovery or relief from a disease; or, a complete or permanent solution or remedy.

The problem is that they are now including everything and anything, which crosses with other definitions.

Incurable means: not likely to be changed or corrected.

Define likely? Likely: having a high probability of occurring or being true.

Ok, so for incurable, you can rule it out because PTSD has a majority full recovery, which places it on the positive side of relief.

Now treatable: capable of being treated : yielding or responsive to treatment.

From everything above, PTSD recovery falls much closer to treatable, as it is responsive to treatments of various type, and some will get full relief, others partial, others not much at all.

So if you want to use the term PTSD, it does not directly fall into curable or incurable, because not everyone will get relief from treatment, incurable is inaccurate as per above, thus leaving treatable which more aptly describes the outcome for EVERY person with PTSD.

 

[Mashed Potatoes]

I should point out, I did not read the article. I only read the question in the post. It would take me a few days to read and understand the article. sorry <3

 

[Friday]

Research shows that the majority of people who meet the diagnosis criteria for PTSD do go on to recover fully, many without treatment

Right? This is a thing that's been driving me spare for awhile.

So if something like 60% of people who are diagnosed with PTSD go on to completely be cured, (most within a few months!), without treatment, and be fine the rest of their lives with no recurrence of symptoms... Do you think this is a diagnosis problem? Either misdiagnosed with PTSD instead of (ASD doesn't fit if it's long than a month, but there seems to be a need for something intermediate?), or should the diagnostics manuals kick the whole lifelong thing to the curb & just own that the majority is curable & acute, while the minority is lifelong & cyclic? ...& Not to "Did you mean to kill your wife" limit answers to those 2 choices... Or have you resolved it some other way? Because the dissonance between cannon & research just driving me crazy. (We'll blame that ;) :whistling: )

 

[Suzetig]

I don't know that it's a diagnostics issue so much as a spectrum issue - and I see PTSD very much on a spectrum from folk who are badly impacted by an individual trauma, have a secure base/sense of self to return to and who do recovery after a period of time to people who have experienced chronic trauma, with no sense of pre-trauma self who struggle significantly.

I'm not sure the DSM V does specify that PTSD is a lifelong condition and while neuroscience as much to offer in terms of understanding the impact of trauma on brain structure and development it's still a science in its infancy so I don't think that it's conclusive in every case nor that every individual is impacted in the same way to the same extent.

Again I'm reminded that folk here tend to represent those who have been significantly impacted and who struggle to find relief at the most severe end of the scale but most people don't live here.

 

[anthony]

Do you think this is a diagnosis problem?

I think the problem is both areas... diagnostic and spectrum. PTSD is not a life long disorder, it is a disorder that once you get, you are predisposed to the remainder of your life when experiencing later trauma.

I think media choose their words to get impact, without often understanding the full context of better terminology. They want to sell advertising and readers, end of the day.