Acute Stress Disorder: Symptoms, Causes And Treatment
Acute Stress Disorder involves exposure to a traumatic event or occurrence and causes a series of intrusive, dissociative and avoidance symptoms, causing serious discomfort to the person who suffers from it.
It lasts between 3 days and 1 month, and if the symptoms persist, it ends up evolving into PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). In this article we will learn about the main symptoms of this disorder, the causes that cause it and the treatments that are used.
Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) is a disorder classified as a “disorder related to trauma and stressors” within the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
This is an abbreviated form of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder); Thus, while PTSD lasts at least 1 month, ASD lasts at least 3 days and at most 1 month. That is to say, When symptoms last more than a month, ASD becomes PTSD
Symptoms
The diagnostic criteria for Acute Stress Disorder in the DSM-5 are as follows.
1. Exposure to death, serious injury or sexual violence
The first criterion includes exposure to an event as shocking and traumatic as a death, serious injury, or sexual violence It can be experienced in a real way or in the form of a threat.
The forms of exposure include four varieties or situations: it can be a direct experience of the event, being present at the event that happened to others, knowing that the event has happened to a family member or close friend, or having been exposed to repulsive details of the event. event repeatedly or extremely.
This last case of details would include professions such as police officers and firefighters, among others, since they are frequently exposed to death, violence and child abuse, for example.
2. Various symptoms
The second criterion of Acute Stress Disorder includes the presence of 9 symptoms (or more) from among 5 categories, these being: intrusion, a negative mood, dissociation, avoidance and alertness. Symptoms begin or worsen after the traumatic event(s)
Let’s look at the 5 categories of symptoms:
2.1. Intrusion
It includes memories of the event itself; These memories are intrusive and involuntary, as well as distressing and recurring (they are repeated). In children, however, instead of memories, games may appear that somehow express parts of the traumatic event.
Recurring dreams may also appear of the event or part of it, dissociative reactions and significant psychological discomfort.
2.2. negative mood
In Acute Stress Disorder, another notable symptom is the inability to experience positive sensations or emotions
23. Dissociation
In addition, an altered sense of reality or self may appear, as well as an inability to remember the event itself or a part of it.
2.4. Avoidance
The person with Acute Stress Disorder tries to avoid remembering or thinking about the event, and makes significant efforts to do so ; It also avoids remembering people, objects, or conversations related to the event (i.e., external reminders of it).
2.5. Alert
The fifth category of symptoms includes sleep disturbances, irritable or angry behavior, hypervigilance, problems concentrating, and exaggerated startle responses.
Causes
As we have seen, the causes of Acute Stress Disorder are exposure (in any of its variants) to a traumatic and shocking event or fact, related to death (for example a suicide, a fatal accident or a murder), an injury serious (for example being seriously injured after an accident) and sexual violence (for example rape).
That is to say, The event must be of a certain severity and very shocking for the person who experiences it, hears it or sees it Thus, the causes may be the same as those that cause PTSD.
Treatment
The psychological treatment of Acute Stress Disorder includes trauma exposure techniques These are usually techniques that include imagination training and covert (imagined) exposure among their strategies, although live exposure can also be used, especially to details, objects or people related to the event.
In addition, strategies are usually used for the patient to write or express the story of the event, which includes all possible details of it, so that the patient can later rework said story or writing and include reassuring, relaxing or positive elements. The objective is for the patient to process in a healthy way what he experienced or the event to which he was exposed in one way or another.
Another technique used for Acute Stress Disorder is cognitive restructuring which allows you to eliminate or modify cognitive distortions and negative and/or catastrophic thoughts caused by the traumatic experience.
Pharmacotherapy
Regarding psychopharmacological treatment, Anxiolytic drugs can be used in a complementary way to psychological intervention to relieve the person’s most physiological and anxious symptoms.
However, we must keep in mind that Acute Stress Disorder lasts a maximum of 1 month, and therefore it is not such a long duration as to extend the duration of the pharmacological prescription; Sometimes, no medication will even be prescribed, it all depends on what the doctor or psychiatrist indicates after a thorough evaluation of the person.
American Psychiatric Association –APA- (2014). DSM-5. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. Madrid: Panamericana. Belloch, A.; Sandín, B. and Ramos, F. (2010). Manual of Psychopathology. Volume I and II. Madrid: McGraw-Hill. Pérez, M.; Fernández, JR; Fernández, C. and Amigo, I. (2010). Guide to effective psychological treatments I and II:. Madrid: Pyramid.
