WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE?
From: A Program of Uniformed Services University, Our Nation’s Federal Medical School, Bethesda, Maryland •

Disaster Response Education and Training Project, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress For more information see www.usuhs.mil/csts/
Evidence-Based Management for Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) Acute Stress Disorder (ASD) is characterized by dissociative symptoms (e.g. detachment, derealization, or amnesia) during or after exposure to a traumatic event followed promptly by symptoms of re-experiencing, avoidance/numbing, and hyperarousal from two days to a maximum of four weeks after the traumatic exposure. While not the only disorder seen acutely after exposure to traumatic events, ASD is quite common. The American Psychiatric Association and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Quality and Performance have published Practice Guidelines for the treatment of ASD. For details see: http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis/p20-an08.html
We also have an excellent topic on TBI: http://forums.military.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4230026980001/m/2020024661001

Somehow "divide and conquer" comes to mind for me.

The differential diagnosis between PTSD, ASD and TBI can be a very difficult one. According to the DSM-IV TR, there are specific criterion-based references which assist clinicians in the appropriate diagnosis.

It's important to challenge any diagnosis which doesn't seem to fit quite right for you.

DSM-IV Diagnostic Criteria ASD:
The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present:
the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others-
the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror-
Either while experiencing or after experiencing the distressing event, the individual has three (or more) of the following dissociative symptoms:
a subjective sense of numbing, detachment, or absence of emotional responsiveness-
a reduction in awareness of his or her surroundings (e.g., "being in a daze")-
derealization-
depersonalization-
dissociative amnesia (i.e., inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma)-
The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in at least one of the following ways: recurrent images, thoughts, dreams, illusions, flashback episodes, or a sense of reliving the experience; or distress on exposure to reminders of the traumatic event.
Marked avoidance of stimuli that arouse recollections of the trauma (e.g., thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, places, people).
Marked symptoms of anxiety or increased arousal (e.g., difficulty sleeping, irritability, poor concentration, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, motor restlessness).
The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning or impairs the individual's ability to pursue some necessary task, such as obtaining necessary assistance or mobilizing personal resources by telling family members about the traumatic experience.
The disturbance lasts for a minimum of 2 days and a maximum of 4 weeks and occurs within 4 weeks of the traumatic event.
The disturbance is not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition, is not better accounted for by Brief Psychotic Disorder, and is not merely an exacerbation of a preexisting Axis I or Axis II disorder.

The Surgeon General statement on Anxiety Disorders:
The anxiety disorders are the most common, or frequently occurring, mental disorders. They encompass a group of conditions that share extreme or pathological anxiety as the principal disturbance of mood or emotional tone. Anxiety, which may be understood as the pathological counterpart of normal fear, is manifest by disturbances of mood, as well as of thinking, behavior, and physiological activity.
Types of Anxiety Disorders
The anxiety disorders include panic disorder (with and without a history of agoraphobia), agoraphobia (with and without a history of panic disorder), generalized anxiety disorder, specific phobia, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, acute stress disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder (DSM-IV). In addition, there are adjustment disorders with anxious features, anxiety disorders due to general medical conditions, substance-induced anxiety disorders, and the residual category of anxiety disorder not otherwise specified (DSM-IV).

Diagnosis of these important and devastating disorders should always be made by a competent clinician. We may choose to self-diagnose, but there is always a danger in doing so.

Make sure to challenge, as we often say here, any diagnosis which doesn't seem to 'fit,' your symptoms.

Thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by OldAFcop:
Diagnosis of these important and devastating disorders should always be made by a competent clinician. We may choose to self-diagnose, but there is always a danger in doing so.

Make sure to challenge, as we often say here, any diagnosis which doesn't seem to 'fit,' your symptoms.

Thanks.

Absolute fact! Thanks for your post OldAFcop.