Managing the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): best practice for prevention, detection and treatment

In this issue, Bonde and colleagues1 present a comprehensive systematic review of the time course of symptoms in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with delayed expression. Finding that in most cases PTSD is preceded by traumatic stress symptoms during the first year, they conclude a need to monitor traumatic stress symptoms after trauma exposure to identify those at risk of developing PTSD. This work draws attention to the prevalence of traumatic stress symptoms after trauma exposure, as well as indicating the potential to identify those likely to develop PTSD at a later point in time based on earlier symptoms. This indicates the value of revisiting what we know about best practice in managing the risk of PTSD