TOWARD AN UNDERSTANDING OF POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDERS: AN HISTORICAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVE

This article traces the historical views that led to development of current scientific perspectives of the diagnostical concept post-traumatic stress dis-order. Examples of the catastrophic precipitants of post-traumatic stress disorder, such as war, natural and man-made disasters, and rape are presented, and a description of the current clinical perspective is provided. Because post-traumatic stress disorder often involves all aspects of a person's life, the use of multimodal therapy soon after the trauma is ex-perienced is recommended to prevent the symptoms from occurring