Citation

Gradus JL, Galea S. Lancet Psychiatry 2022; 9(8): 608-609.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/S2215-0366(22)00196-1

PMID

35843252

Abstract

The definition of trauma has evolved and expanded over the past four decades as knowledge regarding life experiences that cause psychological distress has grown. Concurrently, the field has repeatedly grappled with what exactly constitutes trauma. There is an important, and in many respects obvious, disconnect between the definition of trauma in the DSM-5 and the experiences reported by people who have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related disorders. The events that researchers, clinicians, and policy makers have defined as traumatic do not capture all events reported by people who have post-traumatic psychological distress. For example, our work using Danish national registry data showed that probable traumatic events (ie, not confirmed criterion A events) increased the risk of a range of psychiatric diagnoses, including stress disorders and PTSD...

Language: en