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Treating PTSD Symptoms in Older Adults

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Evidence Based Treatments for Trauma-Related Psychological Disorders

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Abstract

We live in a society that idealizes youth. Every day we are exposed to advertisements, social media, and TV programs casting the young. In our careers, social arenas, and health systems, we are encouraged to be fit, healthy, strong, slim, beautiful, efficient, exciting, quick, etc. These are all qualities that are pronounced in youth and decrease in old age. At the same time, fewer children are being born, and people live longer. This leads to a growing proportion of older people in society. People who lived long lives are likely to have experienced numerous losses and potential traumatic experiences. Older people are not as fast, efficient, or healthy as the young ideal, and they are often seen as rigid and predictable: Following this line of thought, it is often presumed that older people are neither willing nor able to change their ways. But is that really so? This chapter investigates traumatic reactions in older people, the efficacy of psychotherapy with older people in general, and the treatment of posttraumatic stress reactions in older people in particular.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unit for Bereavement Research, Department of Psychology, School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark

    Maja O’Connor

  2. Department of Psychology, National Center for Psychotraumatology, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Ask Elklit

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  1. Maja O’Connor
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  2. Ask Elklit
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Correspondence to Ask Elklit .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland

    Ulrich Schnyder

  2. Dissemination and Training Division, National Center for PTSD, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Marylène Cloitre

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O’Connor, M., Elklit, A. (2022). Treating PTSD Symptoms in Older Adults. In: Schnyder, U., Cloitre, M. (eds) Evidence Based Treatments for Trauma-Related Psychological Disorders. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97802-0_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-97802-0_21

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