[Post-traumatic stress disorder]

A traumatic experience outside the scope of the usual human experience (flood, earthquake, industrial disaster, fire, road accident, death camp, torture and bombing) results in a certain number of people in a traumatic disorder which was described for the first time in 1980. The third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-III) of mental illnesses published by the American Psychiatric Society gave a definition of post-traumatic stress disorder which was amended in 1987 in the revised edition of the same manual. The same definition has been accepted by the International Classification of Diseases and Causes of Death (ICD-10). The disorder is observed in 30-80% of the survivors of catastrophic events, in 18-54% of the war veterans, in 17-67% of the prisoners of war, and the prevalence in the course of life is 9.2%. The symptoms include reliving the experience of the traumatic event, avoidance of stimuli related to the trauma, generally dulled reactions and a lack of alertness. PTSD etiology comprises the following: stressor (strength, duration and circumstances of occurrence), personality (age, personality traits, previous experience, genetic predisposition, and available social support) and organic factors (effects of autonomic nervous system and neurobiological changes in the brain). The etiology of the understanding of the disorder is supported by the psychoanalytical theories (primary and secondary gain, anxiety neurosis and conflict neurosis) together with the behavioural cognitive theories based on conditioning and the theory of learning.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)