Recognizing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Recognizing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) outlines the ICD-11 diagnostic features to support therapists in identifying PTSD in their clients.

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Offers theory, guidance, and prompts for mental health professionals. Downloads are in Fillable PDF format where appropriate.

Overview

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) may develop after exposure to an extremely threatening or horrific event, or series of events. It is characterized by: reexperiencing the traumatic event through intrusive memories, flashbacks or nightmares; deliberate avoidance of thoughts and memories about the event(s), activities, situations or people reminiscent of the event(s); persistent perceptions of heightened current threat (e.g., hypervigilance, or increased inclination toward startle reactions). Symptoms of PTSD can cause significant impairment to personal, family, social, educational, occupational or other important areas of functioning.

Recognizing Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD) presents the ICD-11 diagnostic criteria to help clinicians in identifying PTSD in clients.

Why Use This Resource?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a common mental health difficulty. This resource:

Outlines diagnostic criteria and distinguishing features of PTSD.
Supports clinicians in identifying PTSD.
Helps differentiate PTSD from other difficulties.

Key Benefits

Clear

Provides a clear description of PTSD.

Focused

Details the essential and additional clinical features for accurate recognition.

Informed

Drawn from the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11: World Health Organization, 2019).

Who is this for?

Post-Traumatic Stress (PTSD)

Designed for mental health professionals working with individuals affected by PTSD.

Integrating it into your practice

Understand

Review the key features of PTSD.

Recognize

Identify symptoms of PTSD in clients.

Engage

Discuss whether clients relate to PTSD.

Theoretical Background & Therapist Guidance

Psychiatric diagnostic frameworks serve multiple purposes. Classification of mental disorders enables clinicians and researchers to speak a common language when describing patterns of experience and behavior, guide appropriate treatment interventions, and act as a coding system for insurance purposes. The success of these classification frameworks has varied across diagnoses but in the best cases has led to improved understanding and treatment of conditions, as well as helping many service users who find such classification valuable (Perkins et al, 2018).

Diagnostic frameworks are not without controversy. They have been criticized on grounds of reliability, validity, and distortions due to commercial interests (Zigler & Phillips, 1961; Frances & Widiger, 2012; Bell, 2017). Perhaps most importantly there are instances where they have had, and continue to have, extremely negative effects upon service users (Perkins et al, 2018). Diagnosis is not the only way of understanding people and their experiences. Many clinicians and their clients find that attending to personal stories and narratives is a helpful approach, and psychological formulation is one technique for bringing together information about what has happened to an individual and the sense that they have made of it (British Psychological Society, 2018).

Notwithstanding the above caveats, the ‘Recognizing...’ series from Psychology Tools is designed to aid clinicians in the recognition and understanding of common mental health problems.

What's inside

Detailed description of PTSD.
Essential and additional clinical features based on the ICD-11.
Therapist guidance for using the resource.

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FAQs

PTSD is characterized by various symptoms including trauma-related intrusions, flashbacks or nightmares; persistent feelings of threat; and avoidance of thoughts and memories related to the traumatic event.

Information for the ‘Recognizing...’ series is drawn from the International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11: World Health Organization, 2019).

How This Resource Improves Clinical Outcomes

Utilizing this resource can help therapists:

Recognize common mental health difficulties.
Distinguish between different mental health disorders.
Apply this knowledge to enhance case conceptualizations, treatment recommendations, and treatment plans.

References And Further Reading

Bell, V. (2017). We need to get better at critiquing psychiatric diagnosis. Retrieved from https://mindhacks.com/2017/09/19/why-we-need-to-get-better-at-critiquing-diagnosis/
British Psychological Society (2018). Understanding psychiatric diagnosis in adult mental health. Retrieved from: https://web.archive.org/web/20180214095228/https://www1.bps.org.uk/system/files/user-files/Division%20of%20Clinical%20Psychology/public/DCP%20Diagnosis.pdf
Frances, A. J., & Widiger, T. (2012). Psychiatric diagnosis: lessons from the DSM-IV past and cautions for the DSM-5 future. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 109-130.
Perkins, A., Ridler, J., Browes, D., Peryer, G., Notley, C., & Hackmann, C. (2018). Experiencing mental health diagnosis: a systematic review of service user, clinician, and carer perspectives across clinical settings. The Lancet Psychiatry, 5(9), 747-764.
World Health Organization. (2019). International Classification of Diseases, 11th Revision (ICD-11). Geneva: World Health Organization.
Zigler, E., & Phillips, L. (1961). Psychiatric diagnosis: A critique. The Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 63(3), 607.

A Guide To Emotions

Recognizing Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

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Professional version

Overview

Why Use This Resource?