Current perspectives on clinical studies of PTSD in Japan

Abstract

This chapter provides a brief overview of recent Japanese clinical investigations onpsychological trauma that have been conducted in affiliation with the National Instituteof Mental Health (NIMH), the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatryand the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (MHLW). The studies focus on twomain aspects of posttraumatic stress reaction: general human responses to traumaticevents and the clinical nature of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The first aspectinvolves the diversity of human responses to the event and individual sociodemographicbackgrounds, whereas the second deals with the commonality of traumaticreactions. The main focus of the discussion is on the diversity of human traumaticresponses and there is also a brief overview of recent studies on the natureand treatment of PTSD.