PTSD: epidemiology, co-morbidity and treatment

Abstract

Last month's article was on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), its history and diagnosis. This second article explores the epidemiology, co-morbidity and treatment of PTSD, psychometric measurement, and clinical negligence. Both articles should be seen as a resource to enable the reader to obtain a firm understanding of the history of PTSD, the diagnosis of PTSD, the co-morbidity of other conditions with PTSD and the current knowledge on evidence-based care, treatment and management in order to provide a sound base for further study. The articles are aimed at a wide audience to include students of the health and social care professions and others working in the voluntary sector. They may also be helpful to more experienced professionals who wish to refresh their knowledge and to those in the legal professions. After reading this, the second article, reviewing the literature and reflecting on your practice you will be able to: state the risk of being exposed to a traumatic event; discuss the main findings associated with the prevalence of PTSD in females' vs males and in unintentionally caused vs intentionally caused trauma and PTSD; describe the main evidence based, trauma-focussed psychological treatments; and state the main psychometric measurements used with PTSD.