ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION History and Prevalence Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is among the most prevalent Axis I diagnoses, with a lifetime occurrence of 7.8-12.3% in a number of studies (1-3), which would make it more common than both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Little has been known about the biology and pharmacology of PTSD until the last 10 years. Over the past 20 years there have been few controlled studies and even fewer double-blind studies of medication effectiveness in PTSD. Surprisingly, there have been no articles published on polypharmacy in PTSD. This is troubling because many clinicians who treat clients with chronic PTSD find that monotherapy is the exception, polypharmacy the rule. As the pathophysiology of PTSD is revealed in more depth and treatment strategies are designed to deal more directly with the chemical deficits in PTSD, one can hope that this situation will change. A closer look at the complicated clinical and chemical picture of PTSD will highlight the difficulty in treating PTSD with a single psychotropic agent.
