Psychological Injury

The purpose of The Pain of Helping is to provide a source that identifies, condenses, and consolidates information pertaining to psychological injury. In addition to providing details regarding construct definition, information pertaining to symptomatology, assessment instruments (e.g. structured interview, questionnaires), treatment options, leading theoreticians, journals, books, and web sites are also included. This book will serve as a primary source and directory for additional information pertaining to psychological injury. To date, there has not been a concerted effort to synthesize and consolidate the literature of psychological injury and present this valuable information in a systematic and methodological fashion.

This title describes the law related to forensic assessment of and treatment for psychological injuries, particularly posttraumatic stress disorder. A comprehensive guide to psychological injuries, it is suitable for mental health practitioners researchers, and legal professionals who work with psychological injuries.

This book offers a welcome expansion on key concepts, terms, and issues in causality. It brings much needed clarity to psychological injury assessments and the legal contexts that employ them. Focusing on PTSD, traumatic brain injury, and chronic pain (and grounding readers in salient U.S. and Canadian case law), the book sets out a multifactorial causality framework to facilitate admissibility of psychological evidence in court.

Human emotional suffering has been studied for centuries, but the significance of psychological injuries within legal contexts has only recently been recognized. As the public becomes increasingly aware of the ways in which mental health affects physical - and financial - well-being, psychological injuries comprise a rapidly growing set of personal injury insurance claims. Although the diverse range of problems that people claim to suffer from are serious and often genuine, the largely subjective and unobservable nature of psychological conditions has led to much skepticism about the authenticity of psychological injury claims. Improved assessment methods and research on the economic and physical health consequences of psychological distress has resulted in exponential growth in the litigation related to such conditions. Integrating the history of psychological injuries both from legal and mental health perspectives, this book offers compelling discussions of relevant statutory and case law. Focussing especially on posttraumatic stress disorder, it addresses the current status and empirical limitations of forensic assessments of psychological injuries and alerts readers to common vulnerabilities in expert evidence from mental health professionals. In addition, it also uses the latest empirical research to provide the best forensic methods for assessing both clinical conditions such as posttraumatic stress disorder and for alternative explanations such as malingering. The authors offer state-of-the-art information on early intervention, psychological therapies, and pharmaceutical treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder and stimulating suggestions for further research into this complex phenomenon. A comprehensive guide to psychological injuries, this book will be an indispensable resource for all mental health practitioners, researchers, and legal professionals who work with psychological injuries.

This book is a comprehensive analysis of the definitions, concepts, and recent research on malingering, feigning, and other response biases in psychological injury/ forensic disability populations. It presents a new model of malingering and related biases, and develops a “diagnostic” system based on it that is applicable to PTSD, chronic pain, and TBI. Included are suggestions for effective practice and future research based on the literature reviews and the new systems, which are useful also because they can be used readily by psychiatrists as much as psychologists. In Malingering, Feigning, and Response Style Assessment in Psychiatric/Psychological Injury, Dr. Young ambitiously sets out to articulate and synthesize the polarities involved in the assessment of response styles in psychological disabilities, including PTSD, pain, and TBI. He does so thoroughly and very even-handedly, neither minimizing the degree that outright faking can be found in substantial numbers of examinees, nor disregarding the possibility that there can be causes for validity test failure other than malingering. He reviews the prior systems for classifying evidence of malingering, and proposes his own criteria for feigned PTSD. These are conservative and well-grounded in the prior literature. Finally, the book contains dozens of very recent references, giving testament to Dr. Young's immersion in the personal injury literature, as might be expected from his experience as founder and Editor in Chief for Psychological Injury and the Law. Reviewer: Steve Rubenzer, Ph.D., ABPP Board Certified Forensic Psychologist

The Oklahoma City bombing, intentional crashing of airliners on September 11, 2001, and anthrax attacks in the fall of 2001 have made Americans acutely aware of the impacts of terrorism. These events and continued threats of terrorism have raised questions about the impact on the psychological health of the nation and how well the public health infrastructure is able to meet the psychological needs that will likely result. Preparing for the Psychological Consequences of Terrorism highlights some of the critical issues in responding to the psychological needs that result from terrorism and provides possible options for intervention. The committee offers an example for a public health strategy that may serve as a base from which plans to prevent and respond to the psychological consequences of a variety of terrorism events can be formulated. The report includes recommendations for the training and education of service providers, ensuring appropriate guidelines for the protection of service providers, and developing public health surveillance for preevent, event, and postevent factors related to psychological consequences.

The psychological impact of an acquired brain injury (ABI) can be devastating for both the person involved and their family. This book describes the different types of psychological therapies used to ameliorate psychological distress following ABI. Each chapter presents a new therapeutic approach by experts in the area. Readers will learn about the key principles and techniques of the therapy alongside its application to a specific case following ABI. In addition, readers will gain insight into which approach may be most beneficial to whom as well as those where there may be additional challenges. Covering a wide array of psychological therapies, samples range from more historically traditional approaches to those more recently developed. Psychological Therapies in Acquired Brain Injury will be of great interest to clinicians and researchers working in brain injury rehabilitation, as well as practitioners, researchers and students of psychology, neuropsychology and rehabilitation.