Post-traumatic stress disorder

Abstract

The observation that extreme events cause extreme reactions is old. But it was not until 1980 that the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was officially defined and recognised as a clinical presentation. Since this initial description, the description of the clinical presentation has changed, most recently with the drafting of the currently valid international classification systems DSM-5 of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and ICD-11 of the World Health Organization (WHO). Despite striking differences in the operationalisation in the two systems, the following characteristics are similarly defined.