Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) an illness that arises after horrific and life-threatening events? Or is it a label that medicalizes human suffering, and brings with it more problems than it solves? Still a relatively new diagnosis, PTSD has changed our vocabulary and shaped our views on human coping and resilience. Yet almost every assumption upon which the diagnosis rests has come under question. In this volume, Gerald Rosen brings together leading international scholars in posttraumatic studies to consider the most contentious debates. Each chapter offers an analysis of the issues, reviews current research, and clarifies implications for the practicing clinician. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies is essential reading for all practitioners, researchers, and students who work in the field of trauma. Professionals in related health fields and the law will also find this book useful.

Is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) an illness that arisesafter horrific and life-threatening events? Or is it a label thatmedicalizes human suffering, and brings with it more problems thanit solves?Still a relatively new diagnosis, PTSD has changed ourvocabulary and shaped our views on human coping and resilience. Yetalmost every assumption upon which the diagnosis rests has comeunder question. In this volume, Gerald Rosen brings togetherleading international scholars in posttraumatic studies to considerthe most contentious debates. Each chapter offers an analysis ofthe issues, reviews current research, and clarifies implicationsfor the practicing clinician.Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversiesis essential reading for all practitioners, researchers, andstudents who work in the field of trauma. Professionals in relatedhealth fields and the law will also find this book useful.

About the Editor.Contributors.Preface.Acknowledgments.1. Conceptual Problems with the DSM-IV Criteria forPosttraumatic Stress Disorder (Richard J. McNally).2. Risk Factors and the Adversity-Stress Model (Marilyn L.Bowman and Rachel Yehuda).3. Risk Factors and PTSD: A Historian's Perspective (BenShephard).4. Unresolved Issues in the Assessment of Trauma Exposure andPosttraumatic Reactions (B. Christopher Frueh, Jon D. Elhai, andDanny G. Kaloupek).5. Malingering and the PTSD Data Base (Gerald M. Rosen).6. Psychophysiologic Reactivity: Implications forConceptualizing PTSD (Scott P. Orr, Richard J. McNally, Gerald M.Rosen, and Arieh Y. Shalev).7. When Traumatic Memory Was a Problem: On the HistoricalAntecedents of PTSD (Allan Young).8. On the Uniqueness of Trauma Memories in PTSD (Lori A.Zoellner and Joyce N. Bittenger).9. Memory, Trauma, and Dissociation (Steven J. Lynn, Joshua A.Knox, Oliver Fassler, Scott O. Lilienfeld, and Elizabeth F.Loftus).10. In the Aftermath of Trauma: Normative Reactions and EarlyInterventions (Richard A. Bryant).11. "First Do No Harm:" Emerging Guidelines for theTreatment of Posttraumatic Reactions (James D. Herbert and MarcSageman).12. Cross-cultural Perspectives on the Medicalization of HumanSuffering (Derek Summerfield).Index.