Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness that some people develop after experiencing traumatic or life-threatening events. Such events include warfare, rape and other sexual assaults, violent physical attacks, torture, child abuse, natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, and automobile or airplane crashes. People who witness traumatic events may also develop the disorder.
Post-traumatic stress disorder in war veterans is sometimes called shell shock or combat fatigue. In victims of sexual or physical abuse, the disorder has been called rape trauma or battered woman syndrome. The American Psychiatric Association (APA) adopted the current name of the disorder in 1980.
PTSD became a major issue following the Vietnam War. There were so many veterans experiencing severe post war stress that the Veterans Administration was forced to react by initiating in-patient and out-patient counseling and/or medical treatment services for the sufferers. For the veterans who lived in remote areas they offered a special VA Outreach Counseling Program. The Vietnam War was the underlying force that brought the issues of PTSD to the awareness of modern psychiatric care (Marvin, 2003).
In the early years of the war the only help that the Veterans Administration offered was psychiatric medication; they had not yet acknowledged PTSD and had not yet began a counseling program for these sufferers. Vietnam veterans could not and would not trust anyone but another veteran. Their suicide rate was very high.
Fortunately, through research supported by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), effective treatments have been developed to help people with PTSD (Marvin, 2003). Research is also helping scientists better understand the condition and how it affects the brain and the rest of the body.
How Common Is PTSD?
At least 3.6% of U.S. adults (5.2 million Americans) have PTSD during the course of a year.
