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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Non-marital romantic relationship breakups (RRBs) frequently occur among university students. These RRBs constitute stressful events but are conventionally not thought of as traumatic. Current research on RRBs has mainly focused on their association with grief and depression.
AIM: Using attachment theory, we argue that reframing RRBs as potentially traumatic events that can result in posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) is scientifically justifiable, and that further investigation of the relationship of RRBs to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) phenomenology and pathobiology is warranted.
METHODS: To inform our argument, this narrative review draws on the theoretical approach of attachment theory and its nexus with neuroscience.
RESULTS: Individuals who experience RRBs report a range of negative psychological consequences including severe distress. RRBs remain one of the primary reasons that university students seek campus counseling services. Among university students, relationship problems also have a strong association with completed suicide. Additionally, functional neuroimaging (fMRI) studies document brain changes in the amygdala and hippocampus in individuals with RRBs (brain changes that are also implicated in PTSD). Lastly, the controversy and debate around what constitutes a traumatic event, especially in terms of Criterion A for a PTSD diagnosis according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual 5th edition (DSM-5), remains prevalent.
CONCLUSION: Reframing RRBs as possible traumatic events may open the door to treatments that are currently effective for PTSD. Further research on RRBs needs to be holistic within an attachment-neural-behavioral system framework to better understand how RRBs can induce long-lasting negative effects. © 2021 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.
Language: en |