Introduction

In the years since the conclusion of the Vietnam conflict, mental health clinicians and social scientists have vigorously pursued the study of what was initially termed post-Vietnam stress syndrome. Pressed by urgent questions concerning the prevalence and etiology of psychological adjustment problems among Vietnam veterans, great strides have been made in the diagnosis, psychometric assessment, and treatment of the psychological sequelae of combat exposure in Vietnam.

A critical event in the study of war zone stress was the development of the diagnosis of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) for the third edition of the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (American Psychiatric Association, 1980). Two features of this newly defined diagnostic entity were of particular importance. First, PTSD was conceptualized as a reaction to any type of extreme stress, not just to combat experience. Secondly, the cardinal features of the syndrome were identified in operational terms, encouraging empirical studies of the prevalence and presentation of the disorder in diverse populations.

The importance of comparative studies of PTSD

Although one of the distinctive features of the conceptualization of PTSD was its applicability to many types of traumatic experience, the preponderance of studies of PTSD among war veterans has focused on combat veterans of the Vietnam war.