Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Epidemiology

Epidemiological studies of traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder reveal a number of important points. First, the experience of traumatic events is extremely common - for example, a random sample of young adults living in urban Detroit found that the prevalence of trauma was 39% (Breslau et al., 1991). Second, only a percentage of people exposed to a traumatic event go on to develop the picture of PTSD, indicating the importance that vulnerability and resilience factors play in the aetiology of the disorder. In the Detroit study, 23.6% of those exposed to traumatic events had lifetime PTSD (Breslau et al., 1991). Third, although only some of those exposed develop PTSD, this disorder is nevertheless highly prevalent, with estimated lifetime prevalence of up to 8% or 9% in the general population of the United States (Davidson et al., 1991; Helzer et al., 1987; Solomon and Davidson, 1987). In vulnerable communities and high-risk groups, such as war veterans and rape victims, the incidence of PTSD is far higher; 30% in war veterans (Kulka et al., 1990), 47% of sexual assault victims (Rothbaum et al., 1992).