The relationship between the acute traumatic reactions and PTSD - an overview.

This article gives an overview often international studies that investigate the relationship between acute traumatic reactions and PTSD. In 1994, findings from some of these studies led to the establishment of a new psychiatric diagnosis - Acute Stress Disorder (ASD). As it is still a very young field within research on traumatization, this article serves the purpose of reviewing some of the better founded studies and newest results. These ten studies were conducted across different traumatic events (such as shouting incidents, fires, traffic accidents, etc.) where researchers investigated which acute reactions predicted the development of PTSD over time. The earliest studies presented here found that acute reactions - especially dissociation reactions - predict PTSD. With the origin of the ASD-diagnosis which is used as measurement of acute reactions in half of the research presented in this article - the findings were even more impressive. Results showed that the ASD-diagnosis predicts up to 80% of the traumatized individuals who would develop PTSD. The studies also found other variables besides the acute reactions that were predictive of the development of PTSD. Among these were social support and recent stressful life events. Although this area needs further research and variables other than acute reactions/ASD influence the development of PTSD, it seems that an instrument has been found to help identify the majority of highly vulnerable traumatized individuals. This should provide mental heal th services an opportunity to intervene early and prevent distressing and disabling mental disorders.