Hello and welcome to the Zero to Finals podcast.

My name is Tom and in this episode I'm going to be talking to you about post-traumatic stress disorder.

And you can find written notes on this topic at zero to finals.com slash PTSD or in the psychiatry section of the

Zero to Finals More Medicine book. So let's jump straight in. Post-traumatic stress disorder or

PTSD is a relatively common mental health condition resulting from traumatic experiences

with ongoing distressing symptoms and impaired function.

It can affect adults and children of any age.

It increases the risk of other mental health conditions

including depression, anxiety, substance misuse and suicide.

Various theories explain post-traumatic stress disorder, including that previous assumptions

about the world being a good place are destroyed by the traumatic event and that there is an

unconscious loss of trust in the world's

safety. Let's talk about the traumatic events. PTSD can result from any event that the individual

finds traumatic. Examples include witnessing or experiencing violence, for example, sexual assault, domestic violence,

abuse or physical attacks, major car accidents, major health events, for example, traumatic

childbirth, serious illness or death of a loved one, natural disasters and military combat or war zone events.

Let's go through the presentation. The symptoms vary between patients based on their

individual experiences and responses. The history will contain exposure to one or repeated traumatic events.

Key symptoms include intrusive thoughts relating to the event,

re-experiencing, where they experience flashbacks, images, sensations or nightmares of the event,

hyper arousal, feeling on edge, irritable and easily startled, avoidance of triggers that may

remind them of the event, for example, people, places, or talking about the event,

...