Psychological Trauma addresses these advances in a critical and thorough approach. The practicing physician will find this volume an indispensable addition to the existing literature.

Debate surrounds the significance of stressful events in determining the nature and course of mental illness. In the late 1960s and 1970s, the focus of psychiatry shifted to neurobiological causes of illness thereby reducing the importance of the research of stress and trauma as major causes of disorders. With the classification of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the theory of traumatic exposure as a major etiological agent of psychiatric symptoms was reasserted.

In the twenty years following the diagnosis of PTSD, a large amount of data has been collected and this research has presented some important challenges to the mental health field. It is now clear that PTSD is a serious public health problem, yet this disorder is not the inevitable outcome of trauma.

An important development in the field of traumatology has been the recent findings pertaining to the biology of trauma and PTSD. The demonstration of a distinct set of biological models correlating with the symptoms of the disorder has been a critical validation of the concept of PTSD. Also, this evidence has lead the field towards pharmacological treatment of this disorder. The final sections of this volume research the rationale for medical intervention as well s non-biological treatment of trauma and PTSD through cognitive and behavioral therapy.

For a section of psychiatric medicine that has undergone recent significant change, Psychological Trauma addresses these advances in a critical and thorough approach. The practicing physician will find this volume an indispensable addition to the existing literature.