trauma

A group of teachers visiting from Dilley, Texas, view a memorial honoring the victims killed in last week's elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, Friday, June 3, 2022.

National

This is how handguns and assault weapons affect the human body

6:21am June 06, 2022

The effect of assault weapons is much greater in children, as the surface area of their organs and arteries are smaller, said Dr. Joseph Sakran, a trauma surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Left: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Feb. 22. Right: Zelenskyy on April 4.

Images of Zelenskyy show the physical toll that trauma and stress can have on the body

6:00am April 13, 2022

by Jaclyn Diaz

Health experts told NPR that long-term exposure to trauma and stress — like that of the war in Ukraine — can impact a person's sleep, memory, mood and physical appearance.

Opinion: A jet flew by in Michigan. It reminded me that wartime trauma is hard to heal

10:22am April 10, 2022

by Maji Hailemariam Debena

Conflicts in Ethiopia, Ukraine and other countries cause psychological trauma that can last far beyond any ceasefire. An Ethiopian-born mental health epidemiologist shares her insights.

COMIC: Two psychologists tell how Ukrainian kids are reacting to war.

Health & Safety

COMIC: How children are coping in Ukraine — and how parents can help

5:32pm March 21, 2022

by Malaka Gharib

Two psychologists in Ukraine tell what they are hearing from traumatized children — and how to give support to these youngsters. Although in the chaos of war, that can be a daunting task.

Student Journalists

Dispatches From Within: The one-hour special

4:59pm December 22, 2021

by Radio 101 class at R.J. Reynolds High School

At the beginning of the school year, the Radio 101 class at R.J. Reynolds high school was tasked to look into the issue of teen mental health.

Queue Listen Now

Teenager Sama Ahel was taught deep breathing to cope following the Gaza-Israel conflict in May.

Health & Safety

Deep breathing helps kids ease 'Gaza trauma'

8:42pm November 16, 2021

It's difficult to treat Gazans, said psychologist Ismael Ahel. "We can't just deal with the first trauma or the second trauma. It's a complexity of trauma." And children are deeply affected.

A children's room in Beit Hanoun, the northern Gaza Strip, is damaged in a building destroyed by an airstrike prior to a cease-fire reached after an 11-day war between Gaza's Hamas rulers and Israel.

World News

Parents In Gaza And Israel Are Doing Their Best To Shield Kids From The Trauma Of War

12:03pm May 25, 2021

by Ruth Sherlock

Parents on both sides had to find ways to protect their children. "Yes, the cease-fire has been enforced. But how are we going to deal with children traumatized by this?" asks a mother in Gaza.

Queue Listen Now

A writer and trauma therapist specialist explores how weight lifting can help heal emotional trauma.

How Weight Lifting Helped One Writer Work Through Her PTSD

7:20pm May 21, 2021

by Maggie Mertens

A personal trainer and trauma specialist explores how a mindful approach to strength training can help people heal emotional trauma.

A fatigued health care worker takes a moment outside the Brooklyn Hospital Center in April. Many hospital workers these days have to cope with horrific tragedies playing out multiple times on a single, 12-hour shift.

Health & Safety

Trauma On The Pandemic's Front Line Leaves Health Workers Reeling

7:49pm April 23, 2020

by Yuki Noguchi

Hospital workers face stresses right now that can compare to fighting a war, and recent research suggests medical staff could be among the hardest hit by the mental health effects of the pandemic.

Dr. Laurie Punch, a trauma surgeon at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, is adamant that violence is a true medical problem doctors must treat in both the operating room and the community.

Trauma Surgeon Battles Bullets In The Operating Room And The Community

5:00am December 05, 2019

by Laura Ungar

Weary of losing neighbors and patients to gunfire, St. Louis trauma surgeon Laurie Punch has a message: Gun violence is contagious, but so is healing. Doctors who teach can be part of the solution.