Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

Posttraumatic stress disorder can occur in a person who has witnessed an extraordinarily terrifying and potentially deadly event. After the traumatic event, the person reexperiences all or some of it through dreams or wak-ing recollections and responds defensively to these flash-backs. New behaviors develop related to the trauma, such as sleep difficulties, hypervigilance, thinking diffi-culties, severe startle response, and agitation (APA, 2000;).