What can cause post-traumatic stress disorder?
Symptoms of stress following traumatic experiences have been reported since people began writing about war. But PTSD didn't come into formal use until 1980, when severe psychological symptoms were seen in Vietnam veterans. As the condition was studied, it became clear that it didn't apply only to Vietnam veterans. Almost anyone who had been exposed to severe stress or a traumatic event—surviving a tsunami, living through a terrorist attack—could experience PTSD.
Typically, patients re-experience their trauma as flashbacks and nightmares and often have trouble sleeping. Many perform badly in their jobs or have difficulty with social relationships, perhaps because they are excessively prone to anger or irritability.
A less obvious cause of PTSD, just recently written about in the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, involves the experience of being seriously ill or injured and treated by hospitalization in an intensive-care unit.
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