ABSTRACT
The 1978 International Classification of Diseases, published by the World Health Organization (ICD-9)259 did not include post-traumatic stress disorder as an illness of adult life. Acute reaction to stress was defined as: ‘a very transient disorder – in response to exceptional physical or mental stress, such as natural catastrophe or battle. Such reactions usually subside within hours or days.’ (One may question whether it is at all normal for reactions to battle or natural catastrophe to subside quite so quickly.) Another harmless sounding term, adjustment reaction, is applied to ‘mild or transient disorders, generally reversible and usually lasting only a few months’. However, in 1980, the American Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, published by the American Psychiatric Association5 did provide a classification scheme for post-traumatic stress disorder. This, plus a further decade of research on the effects of stress in children and adults, has led to a revision of the World Health Organization classification which now (ICD-10)260 takes more serious and coherent account of this condition.
