A PSYCHO-PHYSIOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF POST-TRAUMATIC AND PROLONGED DURESS STRESS DISORDERS

Abstract

It has been proposed that post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and so-called “prolonged duress stress disorder” (PDSD) have similar symptom profiles and differ only with regard to the presence or absence of a “traumatic event”. This single case experiment investigated whether PTSD can be distinguished from PDSD at the level of patho-physiology. The results indicate that both PTSD and PDSD imagery elicit physiological responses, but these are more readily and more strongly evoked by the former than the latter. These findings suggest that physiological response differences between PTSD and PDSD may be only a matter of degree. Implications are drawn for the psycho-physiological assessment of PDSD and recommendations for further research are made.