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Recent Publications
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This page contains abstracts from a selection of publications written by professionals connected to the Israel Center for the Treatment of Psychotrauma.
1. Dominguez, D.V., Cohen M., & Brom, D. (in press). Trauma and dissociation in psychiatric outpatients. Israel Journal of Psychiatry.
Background: We investigated the prevalence of exposure to traumatic events, the prevalence of post-traumatic suffering and dissociative symptoms, and the relationship between type of trauma and dissociation in a large sample of outpatient adults (ages 18-65) seeking treatment at an urban ambulatory mental health clinic in Jerusalem (N = 298). Method: Study participants completed self-report measures regarding trauma history, post-traumatic symptoms of intrusion and avoidance phenomena, and both psychological and somatic dissociative phenomena. Results: 98% of our sample reported experiencing at least one lifetime traumatic event, 83% of subjects who completed the Impact of Events Scale reported high levels of intrusion and avoidance symptoms, and 15% of the sample reported high levels of dissociative phenomena. Elevated dissociation was associated with physical and sexual abuse, particularly early childhood abuse, as well as increased prevalence of lifetime traumatic events. Diagnoses did not reflect the high levels of post-traumatic and dissociative symptoms. Conclusions: Our findings indicate the need for increased awareness and improved screening of traumatic exposure and its psychological impact upon psychiatric outpatients.
2. Brom, D., Kfir, R., & Dasberg, H. (2001). A controlled double-blind study on children of Holocaust survivors. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 38, 47-57. Special Issue: The Holocaust on child survivors and children of survivors.
Absract: Reported on a controlled double-blind study designed to test the effects of the Holocaust on the offspring of survivors using the sensitivity of clinicians to intrapsychic constellations and processes. The all female sample was randomly selected from several Jerusalem neighborhoods. The 31 index subjects (mean age 38.9 yrs) born between 1946-1960, had at least one parent (mother) who suffered persecution at the hands of the Nazi regime during WWII. The 31 controls matched for age, educational status and birth order, were born to parents who had not lived under the occupation of the Nazi regime and had not suffered losses of close relatives in WWII. In-depth double-blind interviews, conducted by experienced psychodynamic psychotherapists, focused on personality characteristics without questioning individual development. The only measure used was a 48-item questionnaire completed by the therapists at the end of the interview. This study shows that daughters of Holocaust Survivors are characterized by more problems in the realm of separation individuation issues. The authors suggest that it also confirmed previous findings that the offspring of Holocaust survivors do not show more psychopathology than the general population.
3. Cohen, M., Brom, D., & Dasberg, H. (2001). Child survivors of the Holocaust: symptoms and coping after fifty years. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 38, 3-12.
Abstract: Holocaust survivors who were children during WW II have now reached the age of 52 to 67. Until about 10 years ago their voices were barely heard in society. Their successful adaptation to life may have contributed to this invisibility. However, reaching this stage of life, which is associated with the need to review life and with the crises of retirement and renewed losses, has activated the survivors to deal with their childhood. The impossibility of avoiding traumatic memories and an urge to deal with them have also contributed to the societal process of the survivors organizing and speaking out. Very little is known about this group with regard to their mental health status and the way they cope with their childhood memories. The present controlled double-blind study uses a randomized nonclinical sample and focuses on the level of psychosocial and post-traumatic symptoms, on achievement motivation, and on the way child survivors perceive the surrounding world. The results indicate a slightly higher level of psychosocial symptoms in the child survivors group (CS) than in the control group, a high level of post-traumatic symptomatology, and achievement motivation based mainly on the fear of failure. Surprisingly, the child survivors group shows a pattern of more positive views of the world than does the control group. This can be understood as a greater need to compensate for the lack of security suffered in childhood by creating a meaningful world in a chaotic reality.
4. Brom, D. & Witztum, E. (1992). Recent trauma in psychiatric outpatients. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 62, 545-551.
Psychiatric clinic outpatients were screened for recent traumatic events, and post-traumatic symptomatology was evaluated in those reporting occurrence of one or more events within the two years prior to screening. Clear symptoms of PTSD were revealed in 18 percent of the reporting patients, and the distribution of diagnoses was found to be different in the trauma-reporting group than it was in a comparison diagnostic group.
5. Brom, D., Durst, N., & Aghassy, G. (unpublished – in review process). The phenomenology of post-traumatic distress in older Holocaust survivors.
Abstract: This article focuses on the effects of the Holocaust on its survivors more than 55 years after the end of World War II (WWII). The emphasis is on survivors who were either adults during the Holocaust and who are now over the age of 70, or survivors who were children during the Holocaust and whose age is now between 56 and 70. The central question was: what kind of post-traumatic phenomena are seen in older adult survivors? After an overview of the field, the situation of survivors in Israel is presented in two ways. Results of a survey of survivors who were reffered to Amcha, the National Israeli Center for Psychosocial Support of Survivors of the Holocaust, is provided to give some insight on a clinical population. In addition, two case histories of survivors are presented to give a more in-depth perspective.
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