Traumatic stress: established knowledge, current debates and new horizons

Abstract

Traumatic stress studies is a well-established, vibrant and ever-growing cross-disciplinary area of research and practice to which psychologists have made a substantial contribution. This article presents an overview of the field, acknowledging the close relationship between the study of post-traumatic stress disorder more specifically and the field of traumatic stress studies in general. The authors focus on four key dimensions: historical and conceptual issues, diagnostic features and debates, aetiological research findings in relation to vulnerability to disorder and treatment approaches to post-traumatic stress disorder and related conditions. It is observed that there is both extension and deepening of knowledge based upon scientific advances such as neuroimaging and gene mapping technology, employment of meta-analyses, increased attention to randomized control studies and emphasis on more comparative research. Alongside such developments is the posing of important philosophical and psychosocial questions and increasing recognition of the need to contextualize both where and how established knowledge has been generated and how this may need to be expanded.