Trauma and disaster throw lives into chaos and fill people with the fear of loss, injury, and death. Although most individuals experience only transitory posttraumatic symptoms, others experience the effects of the disaster long after the traumatic event when new experiences remind them of the past. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Acute and Long-Term Responses to Trauma and Disaster provides clinicians, researchers, and policy makers with an examination of current advances in research and treatment by recognized experts at the cutting edge of innovation. This timely book incorporates DSM-IV criteria and the new diagnostic category acute stress disorder, which emphasizes the breadth of posttraumatic stress symptoms and disorders and the importance of distinguishing between acute and long-term responses to traumatic events. Individual chapters go beyond PTSD to examine other posttraumatic disorders and responses, the mechanisms of transmission of posttraumatic stress, and its effects on behavior and health in natural and societal disasters and traumas, including war. This volume pays particular attention to the array of psychiatric responses to trauma, including PTSD and the unfolding of illness and recovery over time. Posttraumatic responses are considered across individual, group, family, and community perspectives and from the vantage point of developmental systems from childhood to older adult life.

Covering both natural and man-made scenarios including war and terrorism, the Textbook of Disaster Psychiatry is a vital international reference for medical professionals, community leaders and disaster responders a decade after its initial publication. Spanning a decade of advances in disaster psychiatry, this new and updated second edition brings together the views of current international experts to offer a cutting-edge comprehensive review of the psychological, biological and social responses to disaster, in order to help prepare, react and aid effective recovery. Topics range from the epidemiology of disaster response, disaster ecology, the neurobiology of disaster exposure, to socio-cultural issues, early intervention and consultation-liaison care for injured victims. The role of non-governmental organizations, workplace policies and the implications for public health planning at both an individual and community level are also addressed.

Coping with disaster is an overwhelming and often baffling task for survivors, rescue workers, and clinicians. This volume looks in depth at how people experience trauma and suggests practical strategies for treatment. The authors examine issues ranging from the biological basis of posttraumatic stress reaction to the psychosocial and fictional construction of terror, and disasters ranging from random acts of violence to war. From Chernobyl to Desert Storm, from Kentucky floods to Norwegian avalanches, the authors explore the effects of trauma on adults and children. They find certain commonalities in human response to disasters of all kinds, and hold that by understanding these partially predictable patterns of reaction, mastery of chaos, and finally recovery can occur. Based on their comprehensive analysis, they suggest disaster intervention strategies that emphasize recognition of the psychological effects of trauma, as well as preparedness and prevention.