title: PTSD diagnosis and treatment for mental health clinicians.
abstract: This article focuses on four issues: PTSD assessment, treatment approaches, therapist issues, and current controversies. Important assessment issues include the trauma history, comorbid disorders, and chronicity of PTSD. Effective intervention for acute trauma usually requires a variant of critical incident stress debriefing. Available treatments for chronic PTSD include group, cognitive-behavioral, psychodynamic, and pharmacological therapy. Therapist self-care is essential when working with PTSD patients since this work may be functionally disruptive and psychologically destabilizing. Current controversies include advocacy vs. therapeutic neutrality, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), the so-called false memory syndrome, and the legitimacy of complex PTSD as a unique diagnostic entity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, NH, USA.
authors.forename: M J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003156:Community Mental Health Services; D003379:Countertransference; D006801:Humans; D010552:Personality Assessment; D011569:Psychiatric Status Rating Scales; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods; D011619:Psychotropic Drugs / Q000627:therapeutic use; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D011619:Psychotropic Drugs