ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the genetic and family history in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), the relevance of learning theory, neuroendocrine and neurotransmitter studies, sleep studies, and psychopharmaco-logical treatments. It explains that soldiers heart was associated with a psychophysiological instability of the autonomic nervous system. It describes that patients had "much greater than normal pressure to begin to dream". The disorder can occur as an acute or chronic condition, and its onset may either immediately follow the stressor, or be delayed by a variable period of time. Both human and animal models serve to expand our biological conceptualization of PTSD. The morbidity risk for illnesses was assessed in parents and siblings. The chapter concludes that a stimulus which elicits no response in a control group can evoke substantial increase in heart rate among those who had been initially conditioned to the stimulus. A diagnosis, which has not been without controversy has at last become legitimized.
