Psychological trauma and posttraumatic stress disorder: a review

This paper presents a concise, fully-referenced, state-of-the-art review of psychological trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for emergency mental health practitioners. The nature of traumatic events, their common symptomatology, their disruptions to normal psychological and biological functioning, and the negative health consequences of untreated incidents are presented. Implications for the treatment of victims of traumatic events within the context of a Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM; Everly & Mitchell, 1999) approach are discussed.