... ended in 1975, and a lot of psychologically scarred victims returned home. These veterans displayed a diverse array of problems that lingered much longer than expected (Weiten, 2004). Posttraumatic stress disorder was not recognised as a formal diagnosis in the psychiatry until 1980. In 1980 the American Psychiatric Association added posttraumatic stress disorder to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) nosologic Classification Scheme. Although controversial when first introduced the posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis has filled an important gap in psychiatry theory and practice. Posttraumatic stress disorder is unique among psychiatric diagnoses because of the great importance placed upon the traumatic stressor, in fact a posttraumatic stress disorder diagnosis cannot be made unless the patient has actually met the "stressor criterion", which means that he or she has been exposed to a historical event that is considered traumatic. Since it was first named posttraumatic stress ...

See this essay or coursework document in full right now