Avoidance (such as avoiding thoughts, feelings or memories of the event or events, or avoiding people, places, conversations or situations that are associated with the event or the events).Intrusions or re-experiencing of the event (such as intrusive memories, repetitive play in which the events or aspects of it are expressed, nightmares, flashbacks, distress triggered by reminders of the event or events).These are sometimes considered to be the core symptoms of PTSD: There are three groups of symptoms that are common to both the ICD-11 and the DSM-5 criteria. It is worth noting here that there are events that might not meet these particular criteria, but which may nevertheless be traumatic for the child or young person and may lead to the symptoms of PTSD described below, or to other significant mental health difficulties.
Whereas according to the ICD-11, the event or events must have been “extremely threatening or horrific”. The actual criteria have changed a bit over time.Īccording to the DSM-5, in order to fulfil the criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD, the person must have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event that involved “actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence”. PTSD was first officially defined in 1980 when the APA published the 3rd edition of its diagnostic classification system the DSM-III. What is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)? For others it may feel stigmatising, reductive, meaningless or result in them feeling like they are being treated as a set of symptoms rather than a person. For some people it helps them explain or make sense of the experiences they have had and the impact it has had on their lives. People find different kinds of meaning in diagnosis.
A diagnosis should help the person experiencing symptoms and should always be used in the context of a wider understanding of the person’s needs, challenges and strengths when developing care plans. Official diagnostic criteria describe which symptoms are necessary for any particular diagnosis. What is a diagnosis?Ī diagnosis is a formal label that describes a certain set of problems or symptoms. PTSD does not describe the full range of reactions to traumatic events there will be many children and young people who are ‘traumatised’ by events, but their particular difficulties will not fulfil the criteria for PTSD. PTSD is the diagnostic label used to describe a particular profile of symptoms that people sometimes develop after experiencing or witnessing a potentially traumatic event or events.