PTSD requires exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence, followed by intrusion symptoms, avoidance, negative alterations in cognition and mood, and altered arousal persisting more than a month.
Diagnosis follows the DSM criteria.
Alternative Names:
PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress
Why it Matters?
PTSD claims accompany serious injury cases and add substantial non-economic damages. The defense analysis begins with whether the qualifying exposure criterion is satisfied, since not every distressing event meets the standard, and proceeds to whether each symptom cluster is documented rather than merely asserted. Prior psychiatric history and intervening stressors are the alternative causation evidence, and pre-incident mental health records are accordingly significant.
Frequently Confused with
Related terms
Frequently asked questions
Does any distressing event support a PTSD diagnosis?
What alternative causes are examined?
