Michael Cobb
Research Paper- CO720
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: History, Prevalence, and Treatment
Michael A. Cobb
Asbury Theological Seminary
In an era where battles are fought at various times and places across the planet, victims from those battles are just as likely to be from war as they are from the inner conflict within families and communities. Robbery, molestation, rape, exposure to horrific images, natural disasters, brutality from gang violence, even loud noises, all combine to produce the possibility of devastating effects. Often associated with soldiers returning home from the battlefield, on any given day there are countless numbers of people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Global in nature, psychological, medical, and even spiritual leaders have been trying to understand and discover successful methods of treatment for years. Thanks to pure empirical research, there is now more hope for a cure than ever before. Biblically speaking, exposure to trauma was part of the human condition since The Fall in Genesis 3. However, the oldest known written response to a traumatic event was actually derived from a cuneiform tablet that described the brutal death of King Urnamma (2111-2094 BC) in battle (Ezra, 2001). Individuals reported symptoms of uncontrollable crying and screaming during the day at the sound of horse’s feet, and mass amounts of people with sleep disturbances in late evening hours. However, it was not until 1980, in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recognized PTSD as an official disorder (Ezra, 2001). Upon its introduction, many controversies followed, and yet, today people have benefitted tremendously from PTSD research that continued to follow. The first major change addressed by the psychiatric community came with attributing the etiological agent outside of the individual (a
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: History, Prevalence, and Treatment
Michael A. Cobb
Asbury Theological Seminary
In an era where battles are fought at various times and places across the planet, victims from those battles are just as likely to be from war as they are from the inner conflict within families and communities. Robbery, molestation, rape, exposure to horrific images, natural disasters, brutality from gang violence, even loud noises, all combine to produce the possibility of devastating effects. Often associated with soldiers returning home from the battlefield, on any given day there are countless numbers of people suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Global in nature, psychological, medical, and even spiritual leaders have been trying to understand and discover successful methods of treatment for years. Thanks to pure empirical research, there is now more hope for a cure than ever before. Biblically speaking, exposure to trauma was part of the human condition since The Fall in Genesis 3. However, the oldest known written response to a traumatic event was actually derived from a cuneiform tablet that described the brutal death of King Urnamma (2111-2094 BC) in battle (Ezra, 2001). Individuals reported symptoms of uncontrollable crying and screaming during the day at the sound of horse’s feet, and mass amounts of people with sleep disturbances in late evening hours. However, it was not until 1980, in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), that the American Psychiatric Association (APA) recognized PTSD as an official disorder (Ezra, 2001). Upon its introduction, many controversies followed, and yet, today people have benefitted tremendously from PTSD research that continued to follow. The first major change addressed by the psychiatric community came with attributing the etiological agent outside of the individual (a
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