Does Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Require Trauma?
"...Not only is trauma insufficient to trigger PTSD symptoms, it is also
not necessary. Although by definition clinicians cannot diagnose PTSD in
the absence of trauma, recent work suggests that the disorder’s
telltale symptom pattern can emerge from stressors that do not involve
bodily peril. In 2008 psychologist Gerald M. Rosen of the University of
Washington and one of us (Lilienfeld) reviewed data demonstrating that
significant PTSD symptoms
can follow emotional upheavals
resulting from divorce, significant employment difficulties or loss of a
close friendship. In a 2005 study of 454 undergraduates, psychologist
Sari Gold of Temple University and her colleagues revealed that students
who had experienced nontraumatic stressors, such as serious illness in a
loved one, divorce of their parents, relationship problems or
imprisonment of someone close to them, reported even higher rates of
PTSD symptoms than did students who had lived through bona fide trauma.
Taken together, these findings call into question the long-standing
belief that these symptoms are tied only to physical threat.
In light of these and other data, some authors have suggested that the
PTSD diagnosis be extended to include anxiety reactions to events that
are stressful but not terrifying. Yet such a change could lead to what
Harvard University psychologist Richard J. McNally calls “criterion
creep”—expanding the boundaries of the diagnosis beyond recognition.
This and other controversies aside, recent results raise the possibility
that PTSD is a less distinctive affliction than originally thought and
that its symptoms may arise in response to a plethora of intense
stressors that are part and parcel of the human condition...." http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=when-coping-fails