WHO also moving eyes to 'erase' bad memories - ANSA.it

Into Not only known psychiatric diseases.

Even traumatic experiences or ‘loss’, such as bereavement, can severely undermine mental health. E ‘for this reason that the World Health Organization (WHO) has developed new guidelines aimed right at the treatment of children and adults exposed to traumatic experiences or loss of loved ones.

WHO arrive therefore precise information than the use of drugs, but the novelty is that you ‘open the doors’ as well as new treatment techniques, such as the ‘eye movement’ to ‘erase’ the traumatic memories. The goal, says WHO – whose new guidelines are published in The Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama) and have been prepared in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, also in order to strengthen the psycho-social support to refugees – is to help doctors and health professionals to deal with the consequences of trauma and bereavement on mental health. More generally, s ays the WHO, mental health problems in the world” are frequent, disabling and generally not treated.” Against this background, in 2008 the WHO has already kicked off the World Programme of Action on Mental Health. Today – even as a result of the growth of demand for information on the interventions for these types of disorders – WHO has expanded the scope of the program to include taking charge of the states from post-traumatic stress. A huge impact condition: according to a recent WHO study in 21 countries, in fact, 21% of respondents said they witnessed violence and about 3.6% of the world population has suffered from post-traumatic stress in ‘year prior to the survey.

The recommendation comes from the World Health is therefore to strengthen psychological interventions for primary emergency and social. The guidelines, however, also invited to refer patients to specialist treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapies, or a new technique called ‘desensitization and reprogramming’ through the movement of the eyes. These new techniques help individuals to mitigate the strong and persistent memories of traumatic events. In this regard, the WHO recommends a greater spread of these methods as well by strengthening training for operators. Doctors are also warned against some treatments in use: the benzodiazepine anxiolytics for example, warns WHO, should not be prescribed to reduce the acute symptoms of post-traumatic stress or sleep problems in the first month after the traumatic event. ” The state of post-traumatic stress – says Mark van Ommeren, Department of Mental Health of WHO – should be taken into care the same way as other common mental disorders. The new indications and protocols will guide health professionals from around the world in the treatment of children and adults who suffer from stress-related disorders specifically from trauma.”