Murrell Counseling Service, LLC
Murrell Counseling Service, LLC
Consulting, Evaluations & Therapy
Consulting, Evaluations & Therapy
1. Critical Analysis of the Current Treatment Guidelines for Complex PTSD in Adults
1. Critical Analysis of the Current Treatment Guidelines for Complex PTSD in Adults
This article was published in the professional journal entitled "Depression and Anxiety" in their first issue of 2016. There were a number of psychologists and social workers from the Netherlands, Germany, Canada, Australia, England and the United States. The primary author and researcher was Ad de Jongh at the University of Amsterdam. She can be reached at a.de.jongh@acta.nl. The findings of the research was that adults need to be taught self-regulations techniques in advance of treating PTSD for the most optimum outcomes. This preparation before actually discussing the details of the trauma was found to be vitally important in both reducing the dropout rate from psychotherapy and in the overall degree of symptom relief for those adults treated for psychological trauma.
van der Kolk, Spinazzola, Blaustein, Hopper, Hopper, Korn & Simpson. 2007, Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 68
3. This study compared the benefits of three different types of therapy in the treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).. The subjects were given tests to measure the severity of their symptoms of PTSD and then started on an adult dosage of Prozac for an eight week trial. Then they were given the same assessment of their symptoms at the end of the trial. A second group of subjects were given twice a week treatment with E.M.D.R. and given the same pre and post tests to measure their symptoms. A third group was simply given a placebo, a sugar pill, with the same protocol. None of the subjects were informed as to which pill or treatment they were given so it was a "blind study" and only the researchers knew which subjects were given what specific treatment. At the end of eight weeks there was little difference between the subjects given E.M.D.R. and the subjects treated with Prozac. There was no statistical improvement in subjects given the sugar pill. There was a follow-up measure given six months later to all three groups. The Prozac group had returned to nearly their initial level of symptoms. The sugar pill group was unchanged. The subjects treated with E.M.D.R. had actually reduced their symptoms even less than at the end of the eight weeks. This suggests that E.M.D.R. actually continues to have an effect even after the treatment is over.
4. On June 1-2, 2018, Dr. Murrell attending the Missouri Psychological Association meeting at Kinderhook Resort. The keynote speaker Dr. John Briere discussed his research on why so few people who are exposed to trauma actually get Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Interestingly only about 7% of those individual exposed to mass trauma incidents (i.e. combat, natural disasters, train wrecks) actually develop P.T.S.D. According to this findings it is not childhood abuse that is the primary precursor that sets up adults for P.T.S.D. , but rather it is parental neglect and lack of parental bonding that is the important factor. In short, it is not being beaten or abused that creates the greatest anxiety but rather being ignored and given a cold shoulder by one's parents that is the critical wound. This is most important between birth and age 10 for future P.T.S.D. issues.
