Mary E Muscari

For those who have been diagnosed with PTSD as well as their family and friends, Mary Muscari’s "What Nurses Know … PTSD" is an indispensible and vital guide to understanding the ways that PTSD can affect a person’s life.

Most important, the book explains what PTSD is and what it is not. It describes how the disorder is diagnosed and describes the symptoms --- both physical and psychological. It also covers the various disorders that can accompany and exacerbate PTSD: things like depression, substance abuse, and generalized anxiety disorder. Muscari provides complete explanations of both traditional and alternative treatments for the disorder and offers information on choosing and working with various care providers. Encouraging and supportive sections on dealing with a child’s or partner’s PTSD offer a number of helpful ideas for easing the stress and helping your child or partner to cope.

Throughout the book, short sidebars explain various terms, offer additional insights, and provide information on available resources. In addition, the glossary, resource list, and index provide easy reference and make locating needed information almost effortless.

The greatest message this book has to offer is hope. As Muscari says in the first chapter, “… you are not crazy … you are not weak … and you are not alone.” "What Nurses Know … PTSD" provides solace, hope, and help for those struggling with this debilitating condition.… (meer)

Another great book in the "What Nurses Know..." series, this book is a fantastic reference for those who are suffering from PTSD as well as their loved ones. It was well thought-out and organized. I especially liked the fact that it was easy to read and organized highly digestible bites. I thought that the bibliography and the glossary sections were quite helpful in continuing the exploration to understand PTSD. On the whole, the book had a tone of caring, optimism, empathy, and most of all, informed understanding of not only PTSD and how it may impact the sufferer's life, but the life of those around them.… (meer)

What Nurses Know ... PTSD
by Mary E. Muscari

The book was received via the LibraryThing Early Reviewer program.

Everyone knows about PTSD, right? Something that combat veterans and crime victims experience? If that's what you think it's all about you'd be wrong.

This book provides a wealth of information in a useful, non-clinical way. PTSD can be caused by many things and manifest in many different ways. This book describes both acute and chronic PTSD, presentation, and potential coping methods. It will be useful for the patient who doesn't realize this is what they're experiencing, or the family member who intellectually 'gets' it but really doesn't understand. There are a multitude of useful resources, suggestions, and discussion material. There is ample space devoted to acute PTSD - the form most people are familiar with. Chronic PTSD, something unrealized by many, is addressed in useful and informative ways. Most sections of the book can be read in 'small bites' and stand alone very well. This format works well for the subject matter, because it's not something that most people can consume all at once.

There are a couple of places where a full page table is not clearly delineated from the preceding page text and it took me two or three looks to parse the information before realizing it was related, but not integral to the material on the previous page. Otherwise the book is well organized and easy to read. Overall, an excellent offering.… (meer)

What Nurses Know....PTSD, is wonderfully representative of what a medical handbook for consumers should do. Unlike another medical handbook that I recently reviewed, Muscari's book covers all the bases in an organized fashion, and has a style that gets right to the heart of the matter without extraneous padding. The headings and subheadings work together using a single It is easy to read without being condescending, it answers all of the questions you might think (or not know) to ask about PTSD, and it successfully manages the most difficult task of books of this type: providing just enough information about each subtopic. Muscari avoids the common mistake of focusing too long on some topics, while giving short shrift to others. Plenty of references and resources are provided for those who want more information on any given aspect of PTSD.

Muscari's main focus is PTSD caused by war-time trauma, but she also acknowledges that PTSD can occur following any sort of traumatic event, including being the victim of a crime, experiencing the death of a loved one, witnessing a horrific event, etc.

My only criticism, which is minor, is that the highlighted boxes containing "extra" insight from a nurse's experience, are sometimes distracting and can disrupt the reading of the text. When I come to a box in the middle of the text, I am compelled to stop mid-sentence and read it. If it directly relates to what I am reading, then the flow is not terribly disrupted. Some of them, however, are not ideally locally in the section central to their topic, and might even be better placed at the end of the section.… (meer)