Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T03:07:26.388Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder: the History of a Recent Concept

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Berthold P. R. Gersons  and
Ingrid V. E. Carlier
Berthold P. R. Gersons*
Affiliation:
Academic Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Tafelbergweg 25, 1105 BC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Ingrid V. E. Carlier
Affiliation:
Academic Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry, Tafelbergweg 25, 1105 BC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
*
∗Correspondence
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This review describes the history of PTSD in relation to military psychiatry, physiology, and crisis theory. It appears that the consequences of psychic trauma are often underestimated and mental health services often fail to provide adequate care. PTSD may be explained as an initially adequate reaction to danger, which becomes pathological if it does not disappear after the danger is gone. The authors argue in favour of better psychiatric intervention after traumatic events and better care for trauma victims.

Type
Review Article
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 161 , Issue 6 , December 1992 , pp. 742 - 748
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

American Psychiatric Association (1952) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1st edn) (DSM). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1968) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (2nd edn) (DSM–II). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1980) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM–III). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
American Psychiatric Association (1987) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn, revised) (DSM–III–R). Washington, DC: APA.Google Scholar
Benison, S., Barger, A. C. & Wolfe, E. L. (1987) Walter Cannon: The Life and Times of a Young Scientist. Massachusetts/London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University.Google Scholar
Boulanger, G. (1990) A state of anarchy and a call to arms: The research and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Contemporary Psychotherapy, 20, 5–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Breier, A., Albus, M., Pickar, D., et al (1987) Controllable and uncontrollable stress in humans: alterations in mood and neuroendocrine and psychophysiological function. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 1419–1425.Google Scholar
Breslau, N. & Davis, G. C. (1987) Post-traumatic stress disorder: the stressor criterion. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 255–264.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brett, E. A., Spitzer, R. L. & Williams, J. B. W. (1988) DSM–III–R criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 1232–1236.Google Scholar
Cannon, W. B. (1914) The emergency function of the adrenal medulla in pain and the major emotions. American Journal of Physiology, 33, 356–372.Google Scholar
Cannon, W. B. (1918) Bodily Changes in Pain, Hunger, Fear and Rage: an Account of Recent Research into the Function of Emotional Excitement. New York: Appleton.Google Scholar
Cannon, W. B. (1939) The Wisdom of the Body. New York: Norton.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caplan, G. (1981) Mastery of stress: psychosocial aspects. American Journal of Psychiatry, 138, 413–420.Google Scholar
Cowell, A. & McFarlane, M. B. (1988) The phenomenology of post-traumatic stress disorders following natural disaster. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 176, 22–29.Google Scholar
Dohrenwend, B. S. & Dohrenwend, B. P. (1981) Stressful Life Events and their Contexts. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press.Google Scholar
Draijer, N. (1988) Seksueel misbruik van meisjes door verwanten. Eeen landelijk onderzoek naar de omvang, de aard, de achtergronden, de emotionele betekenis en de psychische en psychosomatische gevolgen. Den Haag: Ministerie van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid.Google Scholar
Escobar, J. I. (1987) Commentary. Post-traumatic stress disorder and the perennial stress-diathesis controversy. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 265–266.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Figley, C. R. (1988) Toward a field of traumatic stress. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1, 3–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frank, J. B., Kosten, T. R., Giller, E. L., et al (1988) A randomized clinical trial of phenelzine and imipramine for post-traumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145, 1289–1291.Google Scholar
Freud, S. (1917) Trauer und melancholic. (Trans. Morning and melancholia.) Standard Edition, Vol. 14, pp. 243–258. London: Hogarth Press (1957).Google Scholar
Gerardi, R., Keane, T. M. & Penk, W. (1989) Utility: sensitivity and specificity in developing diagnostic tests of combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Journal of Clinical Psychology, 45, 691–703.Google Scholar
Gersons, B. P. R. (1989) Patterns of post-traumatic stress disorder among police officers following shooting incidents; the two-dimensional model and some treatment implications. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 2, 247–257.Google Scholar
Horowitz, M. J., Weiss, D. S. & Marmar, C. (1987) Commentary. Diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 267–268.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health (1961) Action for Mental Health. Final Report of the Joint Commission on Mental Illness and Health, p. 10. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kampen, M. A. van, Watson, C. G., Tilleskjor, C., et al (1986) The definition of post-traumatic stress disorder in alcoholic Vietnam veterans: Are the DSM–III criteria necessary and sufficient? Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 174, 137–144.Google Scholar
Kolb, L. C. (1987) A neuropsychological hypothesis explaining post-traumatic stress disorders. American Journal of Psychiatry, 144, 989–995.Google Scholar
Kolk, B. van der, Greenberg, M., Boyd, H., et al (1985) Inescapable shock, neurotransmitters, and addiction to trauma: toward a psychobiology of post-traumatic stress. Biological Psychiatry, 20, 314–325.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolk, B. & Hart, O. van der (1989) Pierre Janet and the breakdown of adaptation in psychological trauma. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 1530–1540.Google ScholarPubMed
Kleber, R. J. & Brom, D. (1989) Incidentie van posttraumatische stressstoornissen na frontervaringen, geweldsmisdrijven, ongevallen en rampen. Tijdschrift voor Psychiatrie, 31, 675–691.Google Scholar
Lindemann, E. (1944) Symptomatology and management of acute grief. American Journal of Psychiatry, 101 (September), 141–148.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lindy, J. D., Green, B. L. & Grace, M. C. (1987) Commentary. The stressor criterion and post-traumatic stress disorder. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 269–272.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. S. (1990) The nosology of posttraumatic stress disorder. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 4, 61–81.Google Scholar
Parkes, C. M. (1972) Bereavement: Studies of Grief in Adult Life. London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Pitman, R. K. (1987) Psychophysiologic assessment of posttraumatic stress disorder imagery in Vietnam combat veterans. Archives of General Psychiatry, 44, 970–975.Google Scholar
Ross, R. J., Ball, W. A., Sullivan, K. A., et al (1989) Sleep disturbance as the hallmark of post-traumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 146, 697–707.Google Scholar
Selye, H. (1975) Homeostasis and the reactions to stress: A discussion of Walter B. Cannon's contributions. In The Life and Contributions of Walter Bradford Cannon 1871–1945. New York: State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center.Google Scholar
Spiegel, D. (1988) Dissociation and hypnosis in post-traumatic stress. Journal of Traumatic Stress, 1, 17–34.Google Scholar
Stone, M. (1985) Shellshock and the psychologists. In The Anatomy of Madness: Essays in the History of Psychiatry. Vol. II Institutions and Society (eds W. F. Bynum, R. Porter & M. Shepherd). London: Tavistock.Google Scholar
Ursano, R. J. (1987) Commentary. Post-traumatic stress disorder: the stressor criterion. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 175, 273–275.Google Scholar
Watson, I. P. B., Hoffman, L. & Wilson, G. V. (1988) The neuropsychiatry of post-traumatic stress disorder. British Journal of Psychiatry, 152, 164–173.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.