Clinician's Guide to Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

GERALD M. ROSEN, PhD, ABPP, is a clinical professor with the Department of Psychology at the University of Washington and the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at the university's School of Medicine. He maintains a private practice as a clinical psychologist. He has published numerous articles on PTSD, served as editor of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues and Controversies (Wiley), and as co–guest editor with Dr. Frueh for a special issue on PTSD in the Journal of Anxiety Disorders. B.CHRISTOPHER FRUEH, PhD, is Director of Clinical Research at The Menninger Clinic and Professor of Psychology at the University of Hawaii. Formerly a clinician and director of a VA PTSD clinic in Charleston, South Carolina, his research interests are in clinical and mental health service delivery to trauma, both for veterans and civilians. He has seventeen years of experience in the field of traumatic stress and has served as primary investigator on twelve federally funded research grants relevant to this area.

"Contributors to this impressive collection include Robert Spitzer, one of the architects of DSM-III, and Jerome C. Wakefield and Allan V. Horwitz, authors of The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Transformed Normal Sorrow into Depressive Disorder (Oxford University Press, 2007).... It is ironic that research spurred by the introduction of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has come to challenge almost every aspect of the construct's originating assumptions. These issues are carefully discussed: the idea of a specific aetiology; the distinctiveness of the supposed core symptoms; the loosening of the stressor criterion, which editor Gerald Rosen calls 'criterion creep'.... Without a coherent position on the question of specific aetiology, the validity of PTSD rests largely on the distinctiveness of its clinical syndrome, yet its features overlap substantially with other psychiatric categories.... This book interrogates the construction of PTSD and can serve as a case example of the way to critique the construction of psychiatric knowledge across the whole field." (Derek Summerfield, The British Journal of Psychiatry, 2011, 199:347)

• Author Biographies viiPreface xiiiPart I: Core Issues1 Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and General Stress Studies 3Gerald M. Rosen, B. Christopher Frueh, Jon D. Elhai, Anouk L. Grubaugh, and Julian D. Ford2 Normal Reactions to Adversity or Symptoms of Disorder? 33Jerome C. Wakefield and Allan V. Horwitz3 Criterion A: Controversies and Clinical Implications 51Meaghan L. O’Donnell, Mark Creamer, and John Cooper4 Posttraumatic Memory 77Elke Geraerts5 Searching for PTSD’s Biological Signature 97Gerald M. Rosen, Scott O. Lilienfeld, and Scott P. OrrPart II: Clinical Practice6 Assessing Trauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Morbidity 119Jon D. Elhai, Julian D. Ford, and James A. Naifeh7 Early Intervention in the Aftermath of Trauma 153Richard Gist and Grant J. Devilly 8 Cognitive Behavioral Treatments for PTSD 177Elizabeth A. Hembree and Edna B. Foa9 Treating the Full Range of Posttraumatic Reactions 205Richard A. Bryant10 Cross-Cultural Perspectives on Posttraumatic Stress 235James D. Herbert and Evan M. FormanAfterword: PTSD’s Future in the DSM: Implications for Clinical Practice 263Gerald M. Rosen, B. Christopher Frueh, Scott O. Lilienfeld, Paul R. McHugh, and Robert L. SpitzerAuthor Index 277Subject Index 287