Subthreshold Post Traumatic Stress Disorder:: A Comparison of Veterans with Different Levels of Traumatic Stress - Implications for the Prevention and Treatment of Populations with PTSD

This groundbreaking book presents novel ways of examining post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) since its acceptance as a diagnosis in 1980. By detailed examination of the taxonomic history of PTSD and empirically defining subthreshold PTSD, this text examines the deleterious effects of traumatic stress before diagnostic thresholds are met. In doing so it addresses the uncertainties and controversies that confront the field of traumatology and the very nature of the disorder itself. The book provides clinicians a critical research foundation for the study of prevention and treatment of PTSD. It is divided into 5 major sections:(1) Background and problems with PTSD;(2) A History-Models of PTSD, the threshold problem providing impetus for the research of subthreshold PTSD; (3) Research Methodology - Measuring subthreshold PTSD;(4)Findings and Results; and(5) A Discussion of different levels of PTSD in relation to co-morbid depression, alcohol use disorders, and physical health problems. Highlighting the problems associated with PTSD in veterans and other trauma victims, the study punctuates the need to study subthreshold PTSD.