Complex posttraumatic stress disorder in adults

The term "complex posttraumatic stress disorder" (cPTSD) appeared in the scientific literature 30 years ago and has now been included in a diagnostic catalogue for the first time, namely in the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 11 (ICD-11) which was officially published at the beginning of 2022. This usually severely debilitating disorder often poses great challenges to treating physicians and psychotherapists in everyday clinical practice. Due to the much-debated overlap of cPTSD with borderline personality disorder (BPD), which is very high in cases of comorbidity of BPD and PTSD, cPTSD became embroiled in scientific discussions about the raison d'etre of BPD in the new dimensional concept of personality disorders (PD) in the ICD-11. In addition to a detailed explanation of the diagnostic criteria of cPTSD and their differentiation from other mental disorders, particularly from PTSD, BPD and dissociative disorders, this article summarizes the historical development of the concept of cPTSD to date and the currently available treatment options. The same criteria apply to cPTSD in childhood and adolescence as in adulthood, but there are some special features that are not addressed in this article.