Future Directions in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

During the past few years there has been a great deal of concern about veterans, soldiers, and civilians who suffer from PTSD throughout the world. It has been recognized that PTSD is a universal problem, and yet the ability to predict who will suffer PTSD following trauma and to determine what protective measures and factors can be utilized to prevent the development of PTSD, how to properly diagnose this disorder, and how to tailor the treatment to the various manifestations is sorely lacking. The editors established and chaired an international conference bringing together leaders in this field who proposed, presented, and discussed appropriate frameworks that are crucial in developing novel and cutting-edge approaches to PTSD. This volume, which is based on these lectures, addresses four major topics: (1) prevention of PTSD, ie, examining risk factors for the development of PTSD as well as resiliency characteristics in order to identify people at risk of developing PTSD, with the aim of developing prevention programs; (2) diagnosis of PTSD, ie, examining current status of multilayer diagnosis of PTSD, identifying those aspects that are still problematic, and suggesting appropriate modifications to improve diagnosis in order to fit the appropriate treatment modality to the needs of the patient; (3) treatment of PTSD, ie, examining the current available approaches to intervention, including newly developed modifications and tailoring treatment to client; and (4) evaluation of PTSD, ie, assessing both diagnosis and treatment outcomes over time.