Importance of methodological considerations in documenting psychological trauma

Table 1 Documenting psychological trauma

Methodology	Advantages	Disadvantages
Self-reporting, structured interviews and questionnaires	Online surveys possible	Interviewer dependent
	User friendly	Participant motivation
	Therapeutic alliance	Low response rate
	Culturally shaped	Risk of retraumatization
	Standardizing of results
	Quantifiable
Hypnosis and psychodynamic/psychoanalytical approach	Recall of suppressed memories	Mnestic lacunae
	Recollections of remote traumas and of adverse childhood experiences	Confabulations
	Person centered	Inconsistent statements
	Potentially of treatment value	Potential for false memories
	Exploring the subconscious	Unsuitable for psychotic patients
MRI (functional neuro-imaging)	Objective data/findings	Methodology still not well standardized
	Reproducible	Ethnic and age-related changes to be considered
	Images availability and storage of high quality	Relatively costly

MRI: Magnetic resonance imaging.