preview

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Analysis

Decent Essays

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Overview

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a trauma-based mental disorder which could occur at any time throughout an individual’s life once a trauma is experienced, observed, or learned. The PTSD diagnosis is the culmination of a traumatic event in which the individual begins to have adverse symptoms such as emotional distress, hypervigilance, avoidance, concentration issues, anger, and uncontrollable negative thoughts about themselves and the world around them. The individual’s sense of significance, mastery, and formed attachments become compromised by their response to the trauma (American Psychiatric Association & American Psychiatric Association, 2013).
In the early 1980’s, the Veterans Affairs …show more content…

The fifth edition of the DSM, released in 2013, no longer considered PTSD an anxiety disorder. Instead, PTSD was moved to a new chapter called Trauma and Stress Related Disorders (Sareen, 2014). Additional criteria were also added to the fifth edition and in order to satisfy a PTSD diagnosis, a client must have at least one or more symptoms in each of the criterias from A through H. Typically, symptoms occur three months following the trauma. However, in some cases, there could be delayed expression which would represent a delay of months or years before a client meets the diagnostic criteria. In this instance, the symptoms may have been present immediately following the trauma; however, the postponement was in meeting the full criteria. Furthermore, PTSD symptoms can appear in individuals starting at the age of one years old. As a result, additional criteria was implemented for the diagnosis of children under the age of six as their PTSD symptoms differ from those seven years old or older (American Psychiatric Association & American Psychiatric Association, …show more content…

Major Depressive Disorder can be triggered by a traumatic event, but does not have the criteria needed to satisfy the DSM-5’s PTSD Criteria B,C,D and E. Acute Stress Disorder contains similar symptoms of PTSD. However, it lacks the duration criteria as symptoms of acute stress disorder persist only from three days to one month. In order to be diagnosed with PTSD, the symptoms must persist beyond a one month period. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder also shares the same diagnostic qualities as PTSD. However, the intrusive thoughts that are displayed in OCD are not connected to a specific traumatic event as is PTSD. Lastly, Personality Disorders would have been independently present prior to the traumatic event which would eliminate it as possible diagnosis (American Psychiatric Association & American Psychiatric Association,

Get Access