Post-traumatic stress disorder

A disorder defined by a qualifying traumatic exposure together with the required subsequent symptom, duration and impairment criteria. The exposure requirement is a diagnostic condition, not a claim that exposure alone is sufficient or that every psychological disorder has the same prerequisite.^[ref]

The original 1996 account distinguishes verbally accessible memories from representations accessed automatically through situational cues. It aims to explain differences between deliberate narrative retrieval and sensory reliving. This functional distinction does not by itself prove two anatomically discrete memory stores.^[ref]

The experience that danger is present now, even when a reminder refers to a past event. The cognitive model of PTSD links this to appraisals and trauma-memory properties rather than simply the historical severity of the event.^[ref]

Involuntary recurrence of aspects of a traumatic experience, potentially including sensory impressions and a sense of current occurrence. It should be distinguished from deliberate recollection, rumination and a future-oriented image.

A cue associated with a traumatic experience that can prompt emotion or recollection. Its relation may be perceptual, situational or semantic, and need not be consciously recognised at the moment of response.

A form of reliving in which a past event or aspect of it is experienced with a sense of occurring in the present. A bodily conditioned response alone does not identify this phenomenology.