• Your Name
  • Your Phone Number
  • Your Email Address
  • Please Describe What Happened

Emotional Trauma - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

The American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as it is periodically revised provides the standard for diagnosing Post traumatic Stress Disorder. Since 1980 this has been defined as a psychologically traumatic event that is generally outside the range of human experience. It consists of symptoms following exposure to extreme traumatic stress or involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury. It can also involve witnessing an event that involves death or serious injury to another person. In some rare cases it might also involve learning of an unexpected or violent death or serious harm experienced by a family member or close associate.

PTSD as it is known frequently occurs during war. The Vietnam war particularly brought PTSD to the forefront. In diagnosis PTSD, the Psychiatrist will look for exposure to a traumatic event, persistently re-experiencing the event, persistently avoiding stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness and persistent symptoms of increased arousal. For example, the client could have recurring dreams or intense distress to events that resemble an aspect of the event. They frequently attempt to avoid things that might bring back memories of the event. They often have difficulty falling asleep, have incidents of anger, have difficulty concentrating on tasks or ideas and often have an exaggerated response to certain stimuli.

In order to prove PTSD one would need an expert witness. The testimony would have to be based upon actual examination and treatment of the client. Family and friends can be important witnesses as well. There must be proof of the time period before the event indicating normal behavior. The event itself must likewise be proved. The behavioral changes after the event must also be proved.

The defense attorney will most certainly try to debunk the PTSD diagnosis. Moreover, he will look for prior mental problems the client had, including whether the client ever met with a psychologist, psychiatrist or marriage counselor. He will try to determine if the client ever was on medication for emotional issues. Because PTSD is not a well understood phenomenon it is important to have a plaintiff’s attorney well versed in all the nuances involved in a PTSD claim.