Psychological debriefings and their effectiveness in preventing acute stress and PTSD

¶ … Psychological Efficacy of Debriefing for Trauma & Stress

Author's Note with contact information and more details of collegiate affiliation, etc.

The paper will describe what debriefing is. The paper will discuss the nature and prevalence of trauma in American life and culture. The paper will go on to estimate what psychologists are doing to combat this epic rise in traumatic experience, which can lead to stress disorders affecting the daily lives of many. Thus, not only are people victims of trauma, but also, with improper or no treatment, these people can fall victim again to a trauma related disorder. The paper will talk about why and how psychologists are dealing with all these instances of trauma. The paper will summarize two scholarly articles that offer perspective on the issue of trauma and debriefing as treatment. After providing concise summaries of the articles, the paper will provide a comparative analysis of the articles' findings. Finally, the paper will offer its own conclusions in regards to debriefing, trauma, stress disorders, and effective treatment.

Evaluating the Psychological Efficacy of Debriefing for Trauma & Stress

Psychologists are more proactive when the situation calls for servicing victims of trauma. Proactivity on behalf of psychologists is necessary because more Americans are experiencing more traumas, more frequently in our country. Psychologists must be more proactive in response to trauma and stress disorders because there are increased instances of trauma and stress in the America of the 21st century. Psychologists understand both the short-term and the long-term effects of trauma untreated. People who go untreated from trauma, where the more severe the trauma and the greater the duration, the more devastating the effects, develop emotional, psychological, and other disorders. People who experience trauma and do not receive assistance may develop clinical depression, schizophrenia, or post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychologists may use debriefing as a method of treating stress and trauma for victims. This paper will examine literature questioning the efficacy of debriefing as well as propose debriefing's overall effectiveness in treating trauma and stress.

Debriefing is a term that originated in the military and later became a part of the psychological lexicon. For psychological purposes, debriefing is a type of structured conversation held with victims of trauma or stress after the traumatic or stressful event. The general purpose of debriefing is for the victim to express whatever thoughts and feelings he or she may have revolving around the trauma. Debriefing also serves as a way for psychologists to lead victims through their trauma so as to prevent and preclude psychological and emotional damage as a result of the traumatic or stressful experience. Debriefing can involve a psychologist explaining the trauma to the victim, in case of memory loss or shock, as well as the victim sharing his or her feelings.

"Does debriefing after psychological trauma work?" asks the tough question in the title. This article describes how psychiatric and psychological debriefing began in the military and the services have expanded to many populations both public and private. The article is mainly concerned with victims of trauma being more likely to suffer from long-term or returning bouts of PTSD when they continue to experience stress after the initial trauma. The article goes on to stress the necessity of debriefing immediately after the trauma, as well as with follow-up sessions. The article reports the findings of studies done with firefighters, emergency rescue workers, and military officers. The studies concluded that generally, participants had more self-confidence, felt helped, and appreciated the opportunity for expression. The authors do, though, critique these studies, claiming that these were not the results of controlled trails and that, furthermore, controlled trials in this area of research are absolutely necessary to truly evaluate how effective debriefing is. The authors conclude by suggesting that debriefing may not work because it does not take enough contextual factors into account. They also propose the possibility that debriefing may in fact, increase stress. They consider that debriefing focuses too much on the trauma while excluding other stressors that additionally contribute to the PTSD. Finally, the authors suggest that debriefing is a standard procedure in handling trauma, so more consideration and accurate assessment is necessary to make it the most effective and best quality treatment, only when it works best for a particular situation. (Raphael, Meldrum, McFarlane, 1995)

"Psychological debriefing for preventing post traumatic stress disorder" also attempts to fill the lack of empirical data in this area. The authors contend that PTSD is more widespread in this century and there are a great variety of symptoms from which victims suffer. The article further contends that debriefing is a strategy that has a wide victim range of application -- meaning, as the other article stated, many types of groups are treated for PTSD with debriefing. The research presented in this article assesses the effectiveness of debriefing as it relates to PTSD with victims who experience a severe trauma within one month of their initial and only debriefing session. The research gauged such symptoms as anxiety, morbidity, and general functioning. Their findings concluded that there was no concrete evidence that debriefing reduced instances of PTSD. The authors acknowledge the challenge of accurately assessing their data because, just as the other article complains, there is simply not enough studies, trials, or data on this subject. They conclude that one debriefing session is useless and that early interventions for PTSD should be the primary goal of psychologists. (Rose, Bisson, Wessely, 2009)