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Article: Acute stress disorder: application to families of head-injured patients.
- Article from:
- Journal of Neuroscience Nursing
- Article date:
- August 1, 1998
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1998 American Association of Neuroscience Nurses. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Introduction
Critical, acute and chronic alterations in health affect both the individual and family. The initial period following critical illness is characterized by uncertainty, fear and change. Craniocerebral trauma is a critical situation of a new, sudden nature resulting in change. A lifestyle of order and routine is changed to one of disorder and confusion.
Trauma results in psychological stress. This is defined as "a particular relationship between the person and the environment that is appraised by the person as taxing or exceeding his or her resources and endangering his or her well-being" (p. 19).[1] The stress that family members of ...