Editorial
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Methodol. Sep 20, 2023; 13(4): 166-169
Published online Sep 20, 2023. doi: 10.5662/wjm.v13.i4.166
Importance of methodological considerations in documenting psychological trauma
Gentian Vyshka, Fatime Elezi, Tedi Mana
Gentian Vyshka, Biomedical and Experimental Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine, Tirana 1005, Albania
Fatime Elezi, Tedi Mana, Service of Psychiatry, University Hospital Center “Mother Teresa”, Tirana 1005, Albania
Author contributions: Vyshka G and Mana T manuscript drafting and literature review; Elezi F manuscript mentoring and approval of revised version; Vyshka G wrote the paper and revised it.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There are no conflicts of interest to report.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Gentian Vyshka, MD, Professor, Biomedical and Experimental Department, Faculty of Medicine, University of Medicine, Rr. Dibres 371, Tirana 1005, Albania. gvyshka@gmail.com
Received: April 18, 2023
Peer-review started: April 18, 2023
First decision: June 1, 2023
Revised: June 10, 2023
Accepted: June 27, 2023
Article in press: June 27, 2023
Published online: September 20, 2023
Processing time: 154 Days and 14.5 Hours
Abstract

The documentation of psychological trauma is obviously a challenge to clinicians while they are diving deep into remote events related to their clients or patients. The potential role of psychological trauma in the early developmental stages, and even the existence of adverse childhood experiences, is important to prove, yet it is difficult to do so. A diverse range of methods have been applied, all of which presumably benchmark a big therapeutic step; however, these enthusiastic methods frequently do not last for long. While hypnosis supporters, Freudian and Neo-Freudian disciples can be acute enough to enhance and uncover suppressed memories, modern psychiatry relies mostly on diversely structured interviews. Functional magnetic resonance and its related subtleties might help, but the questions that remain unanswered are numerous and confusing. Connecting early experiences with long-term memory while identifying psychological trauma its importance for the individual’s growth trajectory; thus, it remains an intriguing issue.

Keywords: Psychological trauma; Adverse childhood experiences; Post-traumatic stress disorder; Self-reporting; Hypnosis; Magnetic resonance imaging

Core Tip: The documentation of psychological trauma is a delicate issue with important clinical, ethical and legal implications. Interviews, self-reporting, hypnosis and recent sophisticated imaging techniques have been proposed and tried. While each method has intrinsic advantages and drawbacks, it is important for scholars to specify their chosen approach while denoting the value and limitations of the findings.