Psychotraumatology in Pediatric Psychology: duplicity or integration of trauma in pediatric emergencies? A theoretical operational framework

Abstract

The study is the expression of the work carried out by the Italian Society of Pediatric Psychology (S.I.P.Ped.) and presents the theoretical and operational framework of the child and adolescent trauma in Pediatric emergency, which is defined in Pediatric Psychology through the approach of the Psychotraumatology, In this sense, the fundamentals of this approach are: • the type of trauma that develops while the event that caused it takes place and not after it has ended. This time can persist and could cause an atypical development. • the nature of the trauma is explained as an “aggregate” between organic trauma and psychic trauma. In this sense, the study underlines how this aggregate gives life to a “psychoneurobiological displacement”. • the Traumatic Developmental Disorder as an often irreversible damage, which becomes the primary focus compared to the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, with which it is in a comorbidity relationship. The paper then presents the procedural model of actions for the integrated care between physician and pediatric psychologist, including through the presentation of pediatric conditions, and provides a time sequence from the here and now in which the Aggregate was determined to the time of hospitalization and/or care.