Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following were present: 

(1) the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others 

 

(2) the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

 

Note: In children, this may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior

traumatic event is persistently reexperienced

Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness

Persistent symptoms of increased arousal

for more than 1 month.

traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways: 

(1) recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event

(2) recurrent distressing dreams of the event.

(3) acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring

(includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including th

ose that occur on awakening or when intoxicated).

(4) intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event 

(5) physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event

Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following: 

(1) efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma 

 

(2) efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma 

 

(3) inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma 
(4) markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities 

 

(5) feeling of detachment or estrangement from others 

 

(6) restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings) 

 

(7) sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following: 

 

(1) difficulty falling or staying asleep 

 

(2) irritability or outbursts of anger 

 

(3) difficulty concentrating 

 

(4) hypervigilance

 

(5) exaggerated startle response

Specify if: 

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than 3 months 
Chronic: if duration of symptoms is 3 months or more 

Specify if: 

With Delayed Onset: if onset of symptoms is at least 6 months after the stressor