title: Posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) between fallacy and facts: what we know and what we don't know?
abstract: BACKGROUND
  PTSD been recognized as a major problem in public health and has attracted an ever-growing scientific, epistemological and clinical interest. On the other side, PTSD is one of the most controversial diagnosis in psychiatry as well as in medicine in general.
  
  
  METHODS
  We have made an overview of available literature on PTSD to identify what is our real knowledge about PTSD with all dilemmas, controversies and challenges.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We have various options as to how to evaluate, explain and describe PTSD and other trauma-related mental and somatic disorders. In this paper we compiled an extensive set of facts and meta-facts in order to to understand the real nature of traumatic stress, negative life events and PTSD.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Conflict between various concepts of PTSD and our current knowledge will probably bring with itself a new scientific paradigm with new diagnostic phenotypes and refining the old ones.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry, University Hospital Centre Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia. predstojnik_psi@kbc-zagreb.hr
authors.forename: Miro
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jakovljević
authors.forename: Lovorka
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Brajković
authors.forename: Mladen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lončar
authors.forename: Ana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cima
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D055500:Resilience, Psychological; D012307:Risk Factors; D013313:Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000523:psychology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological