Care models including patient trauma history improve health outcomes

A trauma-informed primary care model addressing the impact of trauma on health behaviors and outcomes, may improve both patient and provider experiences, according to a commentary recently published in Women’s Health Issues. “Understanding the link between trauma and heath is an epiphany for clinicians,” Edward L. Machtinger, MD, director of the Women’s HIV Program at University of California San Francisco said in a press release. “Many of us have spent years struggling to help our patients improve their healthy but did not realize that there was a missing ingredient in our model off care. Trauma affects health not only through psychological and behavioral factors, but also biologically, through neuroendocrine and inflammatory changes in response to trauma. By understanding the central role that trauma plays in illness, we can use this new model to reengineer clinical practice around trauma-informed principles to better serve our patients and save lives.”