Psychosocial and genetic susceptibility to posttraumatic stress disorder

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an often-disabling psychiatric disorder thatcan result from exposure to trauma. PTSD develops in only a subset of persons exposedto traumatic stress, suggesting that individual differences influence the susceptibilityto PTSD. In other words, individuals with prior vulnerability have ahigher risk of developing PTSD upon exposure to a traumatic event. In this chapter,we introduce studies of our group on personality characteristics and genetic variantsinfluencing PTSD susceptibility.