Coping strategies of PTSD patients

Pages: 1036-1038
Rachana Kumari (Department of Psychology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi)
Anjana Mukhopadhyay (Mahila Mahavidyalaya, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi)

Trauma can be caused by an overwhelmingly negative event that causes a lasting impact on the victim’s mental and emotional stability. Many sources of trauma are physically violent in nature, while others are psychological. Reactions to traumatic events vary from individual to individual as the appraisal of the traumatic event and the ability to cope with it often differs across individuals. The aim of the present study was to investigate the coping patterns of the patients with post traumatic symptoms. Results highlight the coping patterns of trauma affected subjects. Present investigation included 10 PTSD patients and 10 normal adult (18 to 40 years) subjects. Sample included both male and female hospitalized cases from various Trauma Centres of Varanasi. The level of the trauma symptoms was assessed with the PTSD checklist-civilian version. The level of coping pattern was assessed with the Coping Strategies Scale. As hypothesized the coping strategies of PTSD patients reported higher score on avoidance coping strategies than their normal subject counterparts.