Table 1 DSM-IV-TR criteria for PTSD[1]
A | Stressor |
|---|---|
□ The person has experienced, witnessed, or been confronted with an event or events that involve actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others. | |
□ The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror | |
B | Intrusive recollection (1 or more) |
□ Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. | |
□ Recurrent distressing dreams of the event | |
□ Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring | |
□ Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event. | |
□ Physiologic reactivity upon exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event | |
C | Avoidant/numbing (3 or more) |
□ Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma | |
□ Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma | |
□ Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma | |
□ Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities | |
□ Feeling of detachment or estrangement from others | |
□ Restricted range of affect | |
□ Sense of foreshortened future | |
D | Hyper-arousal (2 or more) |
□ Difficulty falling or staying asleep | |
□ Irritability or outbursts of anger | |
□ Difficulty concentrating | |
□ Hyper-vigilance | |
□ Exaggerated startle response | |
E | Duration |
□ Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month | |
F | Functional significance |
□ The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning |