News and Commentary Archive

Explore recent scientific discoveries and news as well as CLBB events, commentary, and press.

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The Center for Law, Brain & Behavior puts the most accurate and actionable neuroscience in the hands of judges, lawyers, policymakers and journalists—people who shape the standards and practices of our legal system and affect its impact on people’s lives. We work to make the legal system more effective and more just for all those affected by the law.

Is Helplessness Still Helpful in Diagnosing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder?

By Ekaterina Pivovarova, Gen Tanaka, Michael Tang, Harold J. Bursztajn, and Michael B. First | The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease | January 2016

Abstract:

Criteria A2, experience of helplessness, fear, or horror at the time of the traumatic event, was removed from the posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition. We argue that there is empirical support for retention of A2, a criterion that has clinical value and may improve diagnostic accuracy. Specifically, we demonstrate that A2 has high negative predictive power, aids in the prediction of symptom severity, and can be indispensible to detecting the disorder in children. We examine how augmenting A2 with other peritramautic emotions could improve clinical and diagnostic utility. In our opinion, rather than being eliminated, A2 needs to be reconstructed and included as one criterion of PTSD.

Read the full article here.