Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health impairment that many medical professionals are seeing more and more over the last couple decades and many health professionals learn more about the condition each day. Social Security has put the following fact sheet together to educate the public more about the condition as it related to the Social Security disability process.
What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?
PTSD is a mental disorder that can develop after a person of any age directly experiences or witnesses a traumatic event, such as exposure to war, threatened or actual physical assault, threatened or actual sexual violence, a violent crime or serious accident, or a natural disaster. Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will develop PTSD. Among those who do, the traumatic event may cause mild symptoms in one person, but may prove devastating for someone else. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, or DSM-5, classifies PTSD under Trauma- and Stressor-Related Disorders.
What Are the Risk Factors for PTSD?
Risk factors for PTSD include: having direct exposure to a traumatic event, as a victim or witness; being seriously hurt during a traumatic event; experiencing trauma in childhood; having another mental health condition, like depression, anxiety, or substance abuse; having a family member, such as a parent, with a mental health condition; exposure to combat or deployment to a war zone with or without exposure to combat; and lacking social support from friends and family after a traumatic event.
How Often Does PTSD Occur?
Among the U.S. population, 7-8 percent will have PTSD at some point in their lives. Approximately 10 percent of women and 4 percent of men develop PTSD at some point in their lives. Approximately 5 percent of adolescents have met the criteria for PTSD in their lifetime. Prevalence is higher for girls (8 percent) than boys (2.3 percent) and increases with age. There are no definitive studies on prevalence rates of PTSD in younger children in the general population.
What Are the Symptoms of PTSD?
Symptoms include flashbacks (reliving the traumatic event), difficulty sleeping or bad dreams while sleeping, avoiding thoughts or feelings related to the traumatic event, being easily startled, angry outbursts, negative thoughts about oneself, distorted feelings like guilt or blame, and trouble remembering key features of the traumatic event.4 Children under age 6 with PTSD may get upset if their parents are not close by, may have trouble sleeping, or may act out their experience in play activities. Children age 7 to 11 with PTSD may act out their experiences, have nightmares, exhibit increased irritability or aggressiveness, or have difficulty with schoolwork or peers.
How soon after the traumatic event do the symptoms appear?
Symptoms usually begin within three months of a traumatic event, but may also show up years after the event.
How long do the symptoms persist?
Symptoms generally last for at least one month. Symptoms may recur or intensify in response to reminders of the traumatic event, ongoing life stressors, or newly experienced traumatic events. Without treatment, a person can have PTSD for years or the rest of his or her life.
What Treatment is Available for PTSD?
Treatment for PTSD includes antidepressant medications such as Sertraline (Zoloft), Paroxetine (Paxil), Fluoxetine (Prozac), and Venlafaxine (Effexor), psychotherapy such as prolonged exposure therapy or cognitive processing therapy or both. Prolonged exposure therapy teaches a person how to gain control by facing his or her negative feelings. It involves talking about the traumatic event with a medical professional and doing some of the things he or she has avoided.
