How Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is Evaluated

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A test you can do yourself at home to see if you are a sufferer of post-traumatic stress disorder can be obtained from the National Institute of Mental Health. This test will take the anxiety out of wondering if you need to seek professional help for the things that are bothering you.

Health care professionals have a difficult time evaluating PTSD accurately because the problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder are very similar to other medical problems like depression and other anxiety related issues.

If a person has a tendency toward trying to take their own life, they may well be sufferers of post-traumatic stress disorder.. Substance abuse of any kind and depression are certainly symptoms of PTSD and can be diagnosed as a condition existing along with that of other anxiety disorders like manic depression, obsessive compulsive disorders, any other types of anxiety disorders or panic disorders.

An in-depth interview is how the health care professional will try to determine a proper analysis of a PTSD condition. When it comes to diagnosing a minor or a teenager the professional will interview both the child and the parents and do this separately so that the child will be more likely to speak more openly about the situation and their symptoms. It is a common thing for the parent to not be aware of everything that an adolescent is feeling or experiencing.

Also, when this disorder is found in a child, especially in their early years, they will have a different way of describing their problems than how a grown up will express their symptoms. Young children have a tendency to regress in development like become very clingy or prone to having accidents or develop actual physical conditions. The response to the disorder that a young child may have is very similar to an ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) and be unable to focus or sit quietly.

How a health care professional interviews a child may vary. There are also different types of formal interview techniques they may choose to implement depending on the child and the child's situation. There are generalized mental health scheduled interviews that can be used or there are specifically designed interviews with a checklist for diagnosing post-traumatic stress disorder in children. There are also specific interviews to determine the intensity of the post-traumatic stress disorder as related to the symptoms of a young child. One such interview is called the Child Post-traumatic Stress Reaction Index. A couple others are the Child and Adolescent Trauma Survey and the Checklist for Trauma Symptom in Children. The test called The Child Trauma Screening Questionnaire, is a good one for helping the health care professional to determine how the youth will develop post-traumatic stress disorder.