What Percentage of the Population has PTSD? - Disability Secrets

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), also known in the past as shell shock, battle fatigue, traumatic war neurosis, stress syndrome, post-traumatic stress syndrome, and railway spine, is an anxiety disorder bought on after exposure to a traumatic psychological trauma or physical trauma. PTSD can be developed through many different experiences, from physical attack, childhood abuse, and rape, to witnessing a death, combat exposure, natural disasters, muggings, and car accidents. Usually any event that is extreme and life threatening can potentially lead to PTSD. It is estimated that nearly 52 million adults will have PTSD in any given year.  In men the most common risks are combat exposure, childhood abuse and neglect, and rape, while in women the events most likely to lead to PTSD are rape, physical attack, childhood physical abuse or sexual molestation, or being threatened with a weapon. Symptoms of PTSD may involve sleep disturbances, nightmares, flashbacks, hyper vigilance, feeling emotionally numb, feeling hopeless/depression, avoiding activities that might remind the person of the traumatic event, irritability, anxiety, trouble concentrating, anger, memory loss, and hallucinations. To diagnose PTSD, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders requires that these symptoms impair one’s life to severe degree, including their work, social abilities, and relationships. Also, the patient must have been exposed a traumatic event and experience the symptoms for more than one month. Treatment options include various medications, various forms of psychotherapy, stress management, and many times a combination of all three. The most common forms of psychotherapy for PTSD are exposure therapy, cognitive therapy, cognitive behavior therapy and EMDR – eye movement desensitization and reprocessing - involving eye movements that help patients process the traumatic events that are causing their symptoms. According to research, over 7 percent of the United States population will develop PTSD at some point. About 60 percent of men experience PTSD at some point in their lives, and only 50 percent of women, although women are almost twice as likely to develop PTSD. Since not everyone will develop PTSD after a traumatic event, research has shown that about 20 percent of women will respond to trauma with PTSD, while under 10 percent of men will respond with PTSD.