Review article
Family and psychotrauma
Miro Klarić
; Clinics for psychiatrics, CH Mostar, BH
Tanja Frančišković
; Department for psychiatry and psychological medicine, Faculty of medicine, University of Rijeka, Rijeka, Croatia
Amela Salčin Satriano
; Clinics for psychiatrics, CH Mostar, BH
Abstract
While in the last century the studies of direct effects of psychological trauma were
widely spread, the secondary influence of living with PTSD sufferer remained far less developed
field of study. But in the recent years, the researchers and clinicians started examining
the way individuals’ traumatic stress exposure influences the spouses or partners, children,
people who professionally assist traumatized persons, and others who come into
direct contact with victims of natural and human disasters. The study of trauma within
the family is part of what modern literature calls systemic trauma, study of groups, institutions
and other human systems that show stress reactions that are a direct result of a
traumatic event or series of events. Effect of traumatic stress on individual family members
and people in close contact is conceptualized as secondary traumatization. In the
narrow sense the term of secondary traumatization refers to the transfer of nightmares,
intrusive thoughts, flashbacks and other symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder typically
experienced by traumatized individuals, onto the people in their vicinity. In a
broader sense of the term, secondary traumatization refers to any transfer of distress
from someone who had experienced trauma to those in his/hers vicinity, and includes a
wide range of distress manifestations in addition to those similar to posttraumatic stress
disorder. The findings of post-traumatic stress disorder in the family context are convincing
in their discovery that living in families where someone suffers from post-traumatic
stress disorder has profound effects on other family members, family dynamics and
overall family system. These findings suggest the need for creating and developing effective
programs to treat those suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder in which the
point of intervention would be focused on the family.
Keywords
family ties; PTSD; secondary traumatization; traumatic stress
Hrčak ID:
59256
URI
Publication date:
13.9.2010.
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