Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a chronic anxiety disorder which afflicts over 5 million Americans.
Have you lived through a scary or dangerous event? Do you have some of the following problems?
• Feeling like the event is happening again
• Trouble sleeping or nightmares
• Not feeling close to people
• Becoming easily angered
• Feeling guilty because others died when you lived
If so, you might have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Events that might cause PTSD include rape, physical abuse, an airplane or car crash, war or others. For most people, PTSD starts about three months after the event. However, sometimes signs of PTSD show up years later. PTSD can happen to anyone, even children.
As can be imagined, living with these symptoms leads to signficant disability in terms of relationships and successful work production.
Therapy with medications, or medications and intensive therapy are the cornerstone of treatment.
However, studies indicate that patients are left with signifcant symptom burden, even with current treatment.
The search for more effective treatment modalities will intensify due to the number of returning war veterans who suffer from this devastating illness.
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