A thematic analysis of practitioners' understanding of domestic abuse in terms of post‐traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex‐PTSD (C‐PTSD)

Abstract

There is a growing body of evidence suggesting that domestic abuse (DA) should be conceptualised within the complex post‐traumatic stress disorder (C‐PTSD) model. Recently, in the draft of the International Classification of Diseases, Eleventh Revision, produced by the World Health Organization (WHO), C‐PTSD was included as a separate criterion in which DA is incorporated (ICD‐11, WHO, 2018). In this study, a thematic analysis was used to explore to what extent practitioners working with DA survivors are familiar with PTSD and C‐PTSD. Research into such a prevalent and detrimental problem as DA is important to understand whether the development of theoretical knowledge about DA and C‐PTSD is addressed in practice. In a Women's Centre in South London, six semi‐structured interviews with middle‐aged female practitioners were conducted to investigate each counsellor's experiences, knowledge and reflections. Six final themes were constructed to summarise the main results. The findings demonstrate limited practitioner understanding of DA in terms of C‐PTSD, which seems to impact not only the effectiveness of treatment plans with DA survivors, but also counsellors’ own psychological and physical states. It is also indicated that DA can be conceptualised within the C‐PTSD model that corresponds with previous literature indicating the complex nature of DA. The overall results of the current research acknowledge that DA sectors should not be neglected and better funding and effective psychoeducation in this field are needed.

Local understandings of PTSD and complex PTSD among health professionals working with adolescents in violent neighbourhoods of São Paulo city, Brazil

“…Based on these findings, an important future research priority will be to assess the prevalence of CPTSD following exposure to community violence in Brazil as well as in other countries with high levels of community violence in the region. Additionally, as the diagnosis of CPTSD becomes more recognised, an additional future research questions concerns whether and how it will be used in clinical practice by health professionals working in settings characterised by elevated rates of complex trauma [ 48 ].…”

War experiences and relationship problems predict pain sensitivity cross-sectionally among patients with chronic primary pain

“…The current reality of war in Eastern Europe testifies to immeasurable misery, so it is intuitively understandable that this enormous stressor influences everything, including individual pain perception. Similarly, the assessed relationship problems might also encompass domestic abuse in the sense of controlling, coercive, threatening behavior, violence, or abuse in a relationship, likely causing tremendous distress and suffering [8,38]. In support of this reasoning, both war experiences and relationship problems in the sense of domestic abuse and violence have been shown to lead to a severe dysregulation of the HPA axis, being also evident in PTSD and being associated with higher pain sensitivity [15,39].…”

Beyond tears: The predictive role of adverse childhood experiences and complex trauma in male depression within the Chinese cultural context.

“…The World Health Organization also officially recognizes the diagnosis of complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) in the International Disease Classification ( ICD-11 ), published in 2022. Currently, several studies have shown that the traumatic reactions referred to by PTSD and C-PTSD are different (Barbieri et al, 2019; Frewen et al, 2019; Kozlowska, 2020; Litvin et al, 2017; S. Murphy et al, 2016; Rocha et al, 2020).…”