[THERAPEUTIC INTERVENTIONS IN ACUTE STRESS DISORDER (ASD)]

Acute stress disorder (ASD) is a disorder that appears after exposure to a life-threatening event and lasts between three days and a month. In this article, we review therapeutic approaches to this disorder. The information collected, to date, has not demonstrated the effectiveness of drug therapy in preventing the development of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and therefore, there is no recommendation for providing drug therapy as a routine treatment for ASD. The only drug treatment that has proven to have prophylactic effectiveness is pain treatment given when the ASD is also accompanied by a painful physical injury. When symptomatic treatment of anxiety symptoms is required, it is recommended to use it in a limited way. The first line treatment is trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT). It includes psychoeducation, cognitive construction and exposure. In armies around the world, the therapeutic approaches are characterized by the principles of proximity to the place of combat, immediacy in providing the therapeutic response and emphasizing the expectation to return to function (PIE). The effectiveness of psychological debriefing treatment has not been proven, and it is not recommended as a treatment for ASD. The authors of the article recommend building research systems that will allow quality research in this field. It is recommended to train therapists in the field of trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy (TF-CBT) in preparation for events on the scale of a national disaster.