PTSD symptoms the same, but name has changed

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: an anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger the disorder include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat.

PTSD wasn't officially named until 1980, but the first documented case was reported nearly 4,000 years ago in Egypt by a physician who noted a victim's "hysterical" reaction to trauma. After the Civil War it was called "soldier's heart." After World War I, it was "shell shock." During World War II, it was known as "battle fatigue."

By whatever name, the symptoms are the same: nervousness, anxiety, depression and insomnia.

Similar symptoms plague survivors of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks as well as emergency room nurses and physicians, and even social workers who are exposed to traumatic stories from clients.

The debilitating, sometimes life-threatening symptoms are one reason that dozens of studies on the disorder are under way, from Israel to the Netherlands and in several major U.S. universities.

The Department of Veterans

Affairs says at least one in five troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan suffer PTSD symptoms.

— This article is a reprint from The Atlanta Journal-Consitution.