Psychiatric Symptoms and Psychological Defense Mechanisms in Russian Children and Adolescents with Traumatic Life Experience

The article describes the results of analyzing the psychological intervention data for children who had experienced a variety of traumatic events: a hostage-taking (Beslan, Russia, 2004), military conflict (South Ossetia, 2008), accidents with fatal cases (Moscow, Russia, 2009-2014) (n =136). Three groups of children and adolescents who had experienced a traumatic event were singled out by the type of their response to the traumatic event, personality features and consequently, the strategies of crisis psychological assistance provided for them. In the structure of Acute Stress Disorder (ASD), three clinical groups with varying syndromes were identified. Clinical picture of the interviewed children and adolescents and the type of psychological intervention used allowed us to suggest the existence of three trauma response mechanisms: regressive, dissociative and introjective. Most adolescents who used regression as a response to the traumatic event showed a reduction of traumatic symptoms. The most unfavorable psychological condition was observed in patients who used dissociation as a response to the traumatic event. The singled out mechanisms of trauma can partially explain the variety of ASD and PTSD clinical forms.