Risk Factors and PTSD: A Historian's Perspective

Resilient subjects: uncertainty, warfare and liberalism

“…In a recent review of the literature on risk factors linked to PTSD, the historian of military psychiatry Ben Shephard (2004) mounted a sustained attack on the therapy industry that has risen up around the condition. He berated the 'therapy industry' for having created a widespread dependency on medical expertise in the face of much evidence built up over the years Á especially in military experience Á that most people will recover from trauma spontaneously.…”

Can we solve the mysteries of the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study?

“…But the concept of trauma has expanded so much that it now brackets noncanonical stressors, such as learning about the death of a loved one (Breslau & Kessler, 2001) to being exposed to obnoxious sexual jokes in the workplace (Avina & O'Donohue, 2002;McDonald, 2003) and giving birth to a healthy baby after an uncomplicated delivery (Olde, van der Hart, Kleber, & van Son, 2006). As Shephard (2004) has emphasized regarding the expanding concept of traumatic stressor:…”

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Controversies, Diagnosis, and Malingering

“…Rosen and Grunert ( 2012 ) noted that other extensions of PTSD that deserve criticism include proposals for PTED (posttraumatic embitterment disorder; Linden 2003 ), posttraumatic relationship syndrome (Vandervoort and Rokach 2004 ), posttraumatic grief disorder (Prigerson and Jacobs 2001 ), posttraumatic dental care anxiety (Bracha et al 2006 ), and posttraumatic abortion syndrome (Gomez and Zapata 2005 ). Shephard ( 2004 ) referred to criterion A creep as nonsensical, absurd, and a trivialization of the diagnosis. Rosen and Grunert ( 2012 ) noted that, clinically, practitioners fi nd the diagnosis of PTSD helpful because it simplifi es understanding of their patients' problems.…”