Prevention and Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Adolescents

The idea that traumatic life events can lead to the development of reactive psychopathology is one of the earliest in psychology (e.g., Breuer & Freud, 1955). However, only recently have we begun to investigate the impact of traumatic life events on the development of post-traumatic reactions in children and adolescents (Davis & Siegel, 2000). At the same time, we have developed an increased awareness of the extent to which children and adolescents experience traumatic life events (Klingman, 2001). Even though post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) first emerged as a diagnostic category in the third version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III; American Psychiatric Association, 1980), the diagnosis was not specifically applied to children and adolescents until the next revision (DSM-III-R; American Psychiatric Association, 1987). PTSD has a significant negative impact on the biological, psychological, and social development of those youth who develop the disorder following exposure to a traumatic event (Pynoos, 1994). Given the frequency with which young people today experience traumatic events it is important that we develop a model for primary prevention and health promotion in those youth who have experienced trauma.