Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder

Our compassionate and professional clinicians can provide a comprehensive psychiatric assessment and treatment plan for PTSD
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What is PTSD?

PTSD stands for Post-traumatic stress disorder. It is a term we use when an individual has recurring distressing memories, flashbacks and other symptoms after exposure to a traumatic event.

The World health Organization (ICD-11) defines PTSD as occurring following exposure to an extremely threatening or horrific event or series of events characterized by:

1. Vivid intrusive memories, flashbacks, or nightmares accompanied by overwhelming emotions.

2. Avoiding thoughts or memories of the event, activities, situation, or people that remind you of the event.

3. Hyper vigilance or an enhanced startle reaction due to persistent perception of heightened current threat.

What are the
Symptoms of PTSD?

Re-experiencing

  • Flashbacks
  • Nightmares
  • Distressing images / sensations
  • Physical sensations such as pain, sweating, nausea or trembling
  • Guilt / shame

Avoidance and emotional numbing

  • Avoiding thinking about the event
  • Avoiding people that remind you of the trauma
  • Avoiding talking about the trauma
  • Becoming isolated / withdrawn
  • Emotional numbing (trying not to feel anything at all)

Hyperarousal

  • Feeling on edge
  • Irritability
  • Angry outbursts
  • Sleeping problems (insomnia)
  • Difficulty concentrating

How can we treat PTSD?

There are various different ways of treating PTSD, and these will be discussed with you at your appointment with one of our friendly clinicians.

Generally speaking these can be divided into Non-Medication, and Medication Treatment.

Non medication treatments often involve pursuing psychological therapies such as CBT and EMDR.

There are a number of different medications that can be prescribed for PTSD that will be discussed at your appointment with your clinician. It is often the case that people respond differently to medications, and therefore at Harley Street Mental Health, our clinicians like to discuss treatments in depth and come to a shared decision on which treatment plan would be most appropriate.

We recommend filling in the PTSD Checklist for DSM-5 Calculator prior to booking an appointment to screen for PTSD. We can also use this as a baseline score to monitor progress at follow up appointments.

What we can't Treat

Please note that due to the nature of our service, unfortunately we are unable to see any psychiatric emergencies, or individuals with any suicidal ideations. We would advise anyone to take the following steps.
1.If you are under the care of a community mental health team, please get in touch with them or their crisis helpline.
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2.Phone the Samaritans, who operate an always open service where you can talk to someone in confidence. They can be contacted on 116 123
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3.Contact the NHS on 111.
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4.Request an emergency appointment with your GP.

5.Phone 999 or visit your local A&E if there is a life threatening mental health emergency.

What is the process for PTSD Assessments

At Harley Street Mental Health we pride ourselves on listening to our service users experiences and creating treatment plans base on their needs.

Our Initial Psychiatric Assessments are conducted by one of our expert clinicians and last around 1 hour.

After this assessment you will be provided with a report outlining the assessment, any diagnosis if this has been made and a proposed treatment plan including recommended follow up.

Unlike most services, we aim to get our reports sent out within 48 hours.
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©Copyright Harley Mental Health LTD | All Rights Reserved.

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