Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can pose a serious risk to your health and well-being. But fortunately, you don’t have to live with it for the rest of your life. Board-certified psychiatric mental health nurse practitioner Kevin Joseph, DNP, PMHNP-BC, offers compassionate PTSD care at Insight Psychiatric Services, PA. Dr. Joseph understands how debilitating PTSD can be, so he creates personalized treatment plans to help you overcome barriers and live free from PTSD’s restrictions. Book your appointment online today or call the office.
request an appointmentWhat is PTSD?
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric condition that develops in response to a traumatic event. Examples of PTSD-triggering events include combat, terrorist attacks, assault, and natural disasters. People with PTSD experience symptoms connected to the event even long after it happened.
What are the symptoms of PTSD?
PTSD symptoms are grouped into four types:
Intrusive thoughts
Intrusive thoughts include unwanted memories, nightmares, and flashbacks that feel like you’re reliving the event.
Avoidance
Avoidance behavior means going out of your way to avoid anything that could cause intrusive thoughts. This can include avoiding many people, places, and situations and significantly limiting what you feel you can do safely.
Cognition and mood changes
Cognition and mood changes mean that your memory and feelings around the PTSD-triggering event become distorted and unreliable. You can experience memory loss, intense negative emotions about yourself, and numbness or detachment.
Arousal and reactivity changes
Arousal and reactivity changes involve being hyperaware of your surroundings, being startled easily, having insomnia, poor concentration, and overreacting or having angry outbursts.
You could be diagnosed with PTSD if you have symptoms in all of these categories. PTSD symptoms last longer than one month and disrupt your life.
How is PTSD diagnosed?
At Insight Psychiatric Services, PA, the first step is an hour-long evaluation with Dr. Joseph. You’ll answer questions about your feelings, thoughts, and behavior patterns during your assessment. Dr. Joseph evaluates this information to make a diagnosis. In some cases, you’ll need medical tests to rule out other conditions.
How is PTSD treated?
PTSD treatment usually includes psychotherapy and medication.
Psychotherapy
According to the American Psychiatric Association, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is highly effective as a PTSD treatment. Dr. Joseph helps you recognize unproductive thoughts, create healthy replacement thoughts, and put those new thoughts into effect in your daily life. He offers time-limited intensive psychotherapy.
Medication
Medication can ease your PTSD symptoms and help you take an active part in your psychotherapy. Common medicines for PTSD include antidepressants like Prozac®, Paxil®, Effexor®, and Zoloft®. Antiseizure drugs and other medications are sometimes prescribed as well.
Treatment plans usually include 30-minute medication management visits (in-office or telemedicine), during which Dr. Joseph discusses your medication’s effects, provides refills, and changes your prescription if needed.
Insight Psychiatric Services, PA, offers compassionate PTSD care through telemedicine and in-office. Book an appointment now online or by phone.