Abstract

Exposure to physical and psychological trauma has produced a post-millennial epoch of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a debilitating anxiety disorder that occurs after exposure to an extreme stressor or prolonged victimization. After an extensive review of treatment protocols in 2008, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) exhorted clinicians to focus on defining the concept of recovery, concentrating on symptom reduction, removal of the PTSD diagnosis, and end-state function. Although the IOM report mobilized large-scale efforts to quantify treatments and standardize delivery of treatment protocols, PTSD recovery remains a concept that has been largely unexplored. The primary aim of this study was to answer the following question: What is the basic psychosocial process that men and women undergo in recovering from PTSD? The study also fulfilled some secondary aims: (a) identifying which, if any, elements of traditional therapy contributed to recovery and (b) establishing a realistic timeline for recovery.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3523132; ProQuest document ID: 1041256014. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Pamela Phillips, PhD, MSN, RN

Sigma Membership

Non-member

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Grounded Theory

Research Approach

Qualitative Research

Keywords:

Stress, Anxiety, Victimization, Psychosocial Process

Advisor

Kathleen Scharer

Second Advisor

Mary Boyd

Third Advisor

Beverly Baliko

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

University of South Carolina

Degree Year

2012

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2024-04-03

Full Text of Presentation

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