Prevention and Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Adolescents

Abstract

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has a significant negative impact on the biological, psychological, and social development of those youth who develop the disorder following exposure to a traumatic event (Pynoos, 1994). Given the frequency with which young people today experience traumatic events, the authors feel that it is important that we develop a model for primary prevention and health promotion in those youth who have experienced trauma. In this chapter the authors look at individual, family and social risk factors and protective factors related to PTSD; evidence-based treatment interventions; psychopharmacology for PTSD; and prevention of PTSD. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved)