Any car injury lawyer in Perth has probably seen a rise in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) injury claims in the last few years as awareness of PTSD continues to rise. PTSD is estimated to occur in one out of every ten accidents worldwide. More often than not, PTSD is accompanied by physical illness and chronic pain.
PTSD sufferers tend to be in a lower state of physical health than their peers of the same gender and age. They also tend to have a lower opinion of their own state of health than their peers. In other words, they aren’t as well and they feel worse than their peers who don’t have PTSD.
PTSD makes chronic pain worse than in sufferers who don’t have PTSD. For example, a whiplash survivor will have worse chronic headaches and neck pain if he or she has PTSD than if he or she doesn’t.
Not only are those with PTSD more likely to have pain, but those with chronic pain are more likely to have PTSD. In other words, chronic pain often leads to PTSD. It is believed that the mechanism by which chronic pain causes PTSD is that it is a constant reminder of the trauma that caused it.
Symptoms of PTSD
PTSD sounds nebulous and difficult to prove in court, but the medical community has assigned specific symptoms to PTSD for the purposes of diagnosis. Symptoms include involuntary and intrusive thoughts relating to the trauma, dreams or mental images of the traumatic event that won’t go away and a state of emotional numbness or decreased feelings.
Hyperarousal symptoms include irritability, sleep disturbance and inability to concentrate. Another symptom is attempting to avoid events resembling the original trauma.
To be diagnosed with PTSD, a patient must display three avoidance or numbing symptoms and two hyperarousal symptoms for a duration of at least one month.
Contact Bradford Legal or call 1300 738 303 to learn more.
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