Trauma Injuries

Acute Stress Disorder

If someone is unfortunate enough to witness an event in which they or another individual experienced a fatality, devastating injury, physical destruction, or a serious threat, it is likely that they will display feelings of fright, vulnerability, or dismay. If this is the case, acute stress disorder (ASD) can set in within a month of the traumatic event. A patient diagnosed with ASD is a strong candidate for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In the early part of the 20th century, soldiers who fought in World War I that showed signs of ASD were characterized as being "shell shocked." It was often hard to distinguish what sort of trauma had caused the combatant's symptoms because a victim of a concussion caused by exploding shrapnel may respond very similar to one who had received a blow to the central nervous system. Civilians living in a combat zone can also show signs of ASD. Recent studies have even shown that for a brief time span, people might show symptoms linked to PTSD immediately following a traumatic situation.

Symptoms

To qualify as ASD, any of these following symptoms must be present for at least two days and may last as long as a month from the date of the traumatic event. If other health conditions do not offer a solid explanation for the presence of the symptoms, a patient may receive a diagnosis of ASD for lack of anything making better sense. If a month has passed and symptoms still have not subsided, the diagnosis of ASD is recognized as PTSD. Symptoms may include:

• Emotional indifference or unresponsiveness.
• Lowered awareness of surrounding environment.
• Loss of sense of reality.
• Disassociation from one's inner feelings.
• Memory loss in terms of what happened during the traumatic event. This is also known as dissociative amnesia.
• Heightened feelings of nervousness and anxiety that encourage or discourage sleep.
• Difficulty experiencing gratification.
• Reliving the traumatic event via thoughts, flashbacks, and dreams.
• Intentional evasion of thoughts, conversations, locations, people, or things that bring back memories of trauma.
• Stressful feelings that disrupt skills required for daily living (e.g., occupational skills).