Proposal Title
Medical Trauma: Developing a Model for Medical Traumatic Stress
Abstract
The working title of my dissertation is Betrayal of the Body: Medical Diagnosis as a Trauma. This exploration of the concept of medical trauma is focused on how people with a new medical diagnosis experience and perceive it as an acute or prolonged trauma. Because medical diagnoses are quite common, and many illnesses are curable, treatable, or short-term in nature, they are often times not perceived as traumatic events. However, many illnesses are chronic, incurable and life-threatening, or life-shortening such as cancer, autoimmune diseases (e.g. multiple sclerosis) and neurological disorders (e.g. Parkinson’s, ALS). In these specific instances, a medical diagnosis is much more likely to cause psychological trauma.
The central premise of my dissertation is that serious medical illness is a traumatic stressor that should have its own DSM diagnosis that includes the specific characteristics that are more in line with survivor’s lived experience rather than trying to force a sub-group of traumatized people into a larger net (PTSD) that was originally designed for a population of victims of violence and abuse. The current construct of PTSD may not align with the reality of what people experiencing medical trauma actually endure.
In my research I plan to develop a model to understand the phenomenon of medical trauma outside of the PTSD construct using three distinctions between medical trauma and traditional trauma: an internal stressor, future orientated concerns, and lack of safety within the physical body. Ideally, there should be a more accurate DSM diagnosis for psychological distress that can be understood by providers and given concurrently with medical treatment for their illness. This would allow for more systematic patient assessment and screening and result in more appropriate treatment in both medical and mental health settings. In order to account for the mind body connection there needs to be more integration within healthcare systems.
Start Date
27-3-2019 5:40 PM
End Date
27-3-2019 6:30 PM
Room Number
U-Hall 3-087
Presentation Type
Ph. D. Presentation
Disciplines
Counseling | Counselor Education | Social and Behavioral Sciences
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Full Text of Presentation
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Medical Trauma: Developing a Model for Medical Traumatic Stress
The working title of my dissertation is Betrayal of the Body: Medical Diagnosis as a Trauma. This exploration of the concept of medical trauma is focused on how people with a new medical diagnosis experience and perceive it as an acute or prolonged trauma. Because medical diagnoses are quite common, and many illnesses are curable, treatable, or short-term in nature, they are often times not perceived as traumatic events. However, many illnesses are chronic, incurable and life-threatening, or life-shortening such as cancer, autoimmune diseases (e.g. multiple sclerosis) and neurological disorders (e.g. Parkinson’s, ALS). In these specific instances, a medical diagnosis is much more likely to cause psychological trauma.
The central premise of my dissertation is that serious medical illness is a traumatic stressor that should have its own DSM diagnosis that includes the specific characteristics that are more in line with survivor’s lived experience rather than trying to force a sub-group of traumatized people into a larger net (PTSD) that was originally designed for a population of victims of violence and abuse. The current construct of PTSD may not align with the reality of what people experiencing medical trauma actually endure.
In my research I plan to develop a model to understand the phenomenon of medical trauma outside of the PTSD construct using three distinctions between medical trauma and traditional trauma: an internal stressor, future orientated concerns, and lack of safety within the physical body. Ideally, there should be a more accurate DSM diagnosis for psychological distress that can be understood by providers and given concurrently with medical treatment for their illness. This would allow for more systematic patient assessment and screening and result in more appropriate treatment in both medical and mental health settings. In order to account for the mind body connection there needs to be more integration within healthcare systems.
