History of PTSD

While PTSD has likely been around for centuries, only as recently as 1980 has the American Psychiatric Association (APA) officially added PTSD to its Diagnostic Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM.)

For example, the American Civil War were referred to as suffering from “soldiers heart,” and for World War I, the symptoms were referred to as suffering were referred to as suffering from “combat fatigue.” For World War II it was said to be suffering from “gross stress reaction.” For many who fought in Vietnam, it was “post-Vietnam syndrome,” before it was give the name PTSD.

PTSD has also been called “Shell shock and battle fatigue.” Combat veterans and rape victims ranging from 10% to as high as 30%. Higher rates of this disorder have been said to be within African Americans, Native Americans and Hispanics compared to Caucasians in the United States.

Some of that difference is said to be due to higher, rates of dissociation soon before and after the traumatic event. There is a tendency for individuals from minority ethnic groups to blame themselves, an increased perception of racism for those groups and may express distress. As evidence by the presence of stress in many individuals in the United States in the days following the 2001 terrorist attacks, not being physically present at a traumatic incident, resulting in the progress of PTSD in up to 15% of girls and 6% of boys.

On average 3%-6% of high school students in the United States and as many as 30% to 60% of children who have survived particular disasters have PTSD.

Traumatic events that trigger PTSD includes military combat, rape, accidents, mugging, violent personal assaults and natural or human disasters. This emotional disorder can develop in other people, who have also experienced extremely stressful events that are outside the range of what is considered to be a normal human experience.