ABSTRACT
Our understanding of trauma- and stress-related disorders is increasing at a rapid pace. Research funding focused on cause, course, prevalence, and intervention for related disorders is at an all-time high. Consequently, there has been a shift within the fields of psychiatry and psychology. For example, the complexity of trauma- and stress-based psychological disruption resulting from stressful events has become more apparent. Seldom do symptoms fit neatly within previously held nosological systems. In fact, the variability of symptom manifestation between individuals is so great that symptoms once believed to belong to non-trauma-based disorders are acknowledged as not only possible, but likely to occur from exposure to traumatic and stressful experiences. This is most evident when considering the prevalence of anger, irritability, aggression, and depressive symptoms in military personnel who have served in the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Generally not associated with traditional anxiety- or fear-based networks, these symptoms are both pervasive and prominent (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Fortunately, the American Psychiatric Association has, at a minimum, acknowledged the complexity of trauma- and stress-based disorders and the tremendous overlap of symptoms between different classes of disorders. This understanding resulted in a new category—Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders— being added to the most recent edition of the organization’s flagship publication, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).
