March On Stress

Management of acute psychological trauma – new paper

Added on the 8th February 2023

A new paper out today, Wednesday 8th February 2023, examines the important area of immediate management of acute psychological trauma in conflict zones.

The article, published in the BMJ, was written by an expert team, including March on Stress Managing Director Professor Neil Greenberg as lead author.

The article presents approaches to managing acute psychological trauma that require no specialist equipment or lengthy training.

Although the techniques identified in the article, including Trauma Risk Management (TRiM), have been developed mostly for military, media, and charity groups, the authors explain that they can be applied in any environment (although with adults only).

Professor Greenberg said: “Acute stress reactions often resolve without care from a healthcare professional. However, immediate management using the strategies identified is important to ensure safety of others involved in an incident, to help identify those at risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, to help to keep people functioning; and in reducing the feeling of powerlessness for those managing a situation by giving them immediate action.”

The paper also identifies post-trauma management strategies for which there is no evidence of benefit, including psychologically focused debriefing (or trauma counselling).

The full paper is available from the BMJ, here.

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