USF Nursing Dr. Kevin Kip discusses PTSD on 970 WFLA Radio

University of South Florida College of Nursing Professor and Executive Director, Research Center, Kevin Kip, PhD, FAHA, discussed post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) during an extended interview with Radio Station 970 WFLA’s AM Tampa Bay Morning Show on June 16, 2013. Dr. Kip was interviewed by the AM Tampa Bay Morning Show’s Host, Corey Dylan to discuss PTSD in recognition of the 4th annual National PTSD Awareness Month.

Kevin E. Kip, PhD, FAHA, Professor and Executive Director for the Research Center at the University of South Florida College of Nursing 

During the interview, Dr. Kip featured the USF College of Nursing’s research on PTSD using  Accelerated Resolution Therapy (ART), a new and innovative alternative to traditional PTSD treatments that use drugs or lengthy therapy regimens. The talk therapy uses back-and-forth eye movements as the patient first imagines the original traumatic scene, and then imagines “replacing” the distressing images and sensations with positive ones. This approach is believed to properly integrate the memories from the traumatic events so that they no longer trigger symptoms of PTSD. The findings of this first study of ART appear in an on-line article published June 18, 2012 in the journal Behavioral Sciences. Results from a separate trial of ART conducted among service members and veterans have been submitted to the journal Military Medicine.

“We ask the patient to re-envision the way that they would rather remember the experience using sets of lateral left right eye movements,” Dr. Kip said during the segment. “And at the end of a given session, we will ask the patient to try to bring up the original images, and when the therapy works properly they can’t do it. The new way of remembering seems to overwrite the old way. As a result of that, they don’t get the physiological symptoms that go with PTSD.”

ART is one of the five sub-studies of the USF College of Nursing’s RESTORE LIVES: Education and Research to Rehabilitate and Restore the Lives of Veterans, Service Members, and their Families, a grant funded and administered by the U.S. Army Medical Research and Materiel Command and the Telemedicine & Advanced Technology Research Center (TATRC) at Fort Detrick, MD.

To hear Dr. Kip full interview on 970 WFLA Radio click here.

To read USF College of Nursing stories on Dr. Kevin Kip click here.

For more stories on the USF College of Nursing’s ART study and PTSD click here.

 -RESTORE LIVES at USF Nursing –

Through ‘RESTORE LIVES: Education and Research to Rehabilitate and Restore the Lives of Veterans, Service Members, and their Families,’ USF College of Nursing faculty develop life enhancing treatments through nursing research, and educate nurses with the knowledge and skills specific to the needs of treating veterans and service members with innovative solutions, and conduct research specific to veteran and military health issues through training nursing leaders within military, and educating nurses at all levels in the special needs of the military, veterans and their families. For more information on RESTORE LIVES or the other priorities  at the USF College of Nursing visit  health.usf.edu/nursing/priorities