Posttraumatic personality disorder: A reformulation of complex posttraumatic stress disorder and borderline personality disorder

Clinicians who treat individuals who are chronically traumatized recognize that the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition does not provide an adequate diagnostic category to capture the range of symptomotology with which these individuals frequently present. Borderline personality disorder and posttraumatic stress disorder often are considered the best diagnostic options. Alone or together, however, these categories neither describe the full range of symptomatology for individuals suffering as a result of chronic traumatization nor provide an adequate framework for understanding etiology or treatment. New diagnostic categories are needed to account for the range of symptom constellations that result from chronic traumatization.