The British Journal of Psychiatry 152: 164-173 (1988)
© 1988 The Royal College of Psychiatrists
The neuropsychiatry of post-traumatic stress disorder
IP Burges Watson, L Hoffman and GV Wilson
Repatriation General Hospital, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia.
The publication of DSM-III introduced the diagnosis Post-Traumatic Stress
Disorder (PTSD), thus providing, for the first time, a framework for
studying the consequences of extremely stressful events. Previously,
traumatic neuroses had attracted a wide variety of labels - as wide as the
experiences that produced them. Competing explanations in psychological and
biological terms have characterised the approach to these disorders, and
social and legal issues have added to the confusion. In recent years,
psychosocial issues have tended to dominate the literature in relation to
PTSD. While acknowledging the importance of such phenomenological and
psychosocial approaches, this paper seeks to redress the balance by
focusing on a biological perspective.