Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

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Literature Review

The condition of stress is the subjective experience of being affected by physical or psychological threats. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) is an illness, classified as an anxiety disorder. It is a psychiatric condition, which may develop when individuals witness to, or directly experience various life-threatening events, including war combat, sexual assault, or natural disasters (such as Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions). Joseph et al, (2008) revealed that the PTSD comprise of three clusters of interrelated symptoms: avoidance/numbing, re-experiencing, and hyper-arousal. These symptoms develop after an individual experiences any traumatic event. Among the general adult population in the United States, the lifetime prevalence of post traumatic stress disorder ranges from 6.8 to 12.3% having one year rate of prevalence of about 3.5 to 6 % (Kessler et al, 2005; Resnick et al, 1993).

Risk Factors

Some individuals get Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of traumatic events such as natural disasters where others do not experience the same trauma. This is because PTSD prevalence is associated directly to the degree of exposure to the stressful events. It depends on an individual's predisposing factors (vulnerability) and severity of the event.  Numerous factors play a vital role in whether a person will get this disorder or not. The resilience factors assist in reducing the disorder risk. There are some of the resilience factors and risk usually present before the trauma whereas others becomes essential after and during the traumatic events. Evidences indicate that distress and trauma are cumulative in nature. The individuals experience multiple events over their life span and such individuals are at an elevated risk for PTSD. These individuals experience difficulty to draw the line between relevant and irrelevant stimuli. They are not capable of ignoring irrelevant and choose from the context which is most relevant. This in turn, ...