Children exposed to violence have PTSD symptoms

If you happen to be among the few in this country saying too much money is spent on PTSD research and treating our soldiers and veterans, consider this. Whatever the government spends on trying to get a grip on PTSD is a benefit to the entire country. PTSD is real and it comes after traumatic events striking humans. The troops, veterans, police officers, firefighters, emergency responders, families living with all of the people wounded by PTSD and regular civilians. Now read this about children exposed to traumatic events and understand there should never be a limit on what the government spends until we find the best way to treat this. The spending however should never include doing studies they have repeated over and over and over again over the last 30 years. In that case, it's just wasted time and money when it could be used on finding something new.

Children exposed to violence have PTSD symptoms
Wed Apr 29, 2009
By Joene Hendry

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Among children showing high levels of stress in reaction to exposure to community violence, researchers found stress hormone responses similar to children diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms include attention or sleep problems, intrusive thoughts, flashbacks, and other symptoms of psychological distress.

In previous research in children, Dr. Shakira Franco Suglia, at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, identified a disruption of the stress hormone, cortisol, among those with PTSD. Suglia and colleagues have now found "similar effects among children living in urban communities who have not been diagnosed with PTSD," Suglia told Reuters Health.

The study involved 28 girls and 15 boys, 7 to 13 years old. Forty-six percent were Hispanic, 54 percent were white. Forty-two percent of the children had mothers with less than a high-school education, Suglia and colleagues report in the International Journal of Behavioral Medicine.

The researchers assessed mothers' reports of their children's exposures to hearing gunshots or witnessing other forms of community violence, and mother's and children's reports of symptoms typical of PTSD.
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Children exposed to violence have PTSD symptoms