Redefining posttraumatic stress disorder for DSM-5

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was substantially redefined for DSM-5, with significant changes in nosology, definition of a traumatic stressor, and number and nature of symptom criteria. These updates, motivated by decades of empirical findings and clinical observation, provide better coverage of the full range of trauma-related clinical presentations while maintaining backward compatibility with previous versions of PTSD. Nonetheless, they have been criticized as being unwarranted, creating excessively complex criteria, and generating unacceptable levels of diagnostic discordance. However, when the goals and expectable effects of the DSM-5 PTSD revision process are considered in light of a growing number of relevant studies, the DSM-5 PTSD criteria perform well and represent a valuable incremental step in the ongoing evolution of the PTSD construct.