Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Research

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety
disorder that some people develop after seeing or
living through an event that caused or threatened
serious harm or death. Symptoms include
flashbacks or bad dreams, emotional numbness,
intense guilt or worry, angry outbursts, feeling
“on edge,” or avoiding thoughts and situations
that remind them of the trauma. In PTSD, these
symptoms last at least
one month.
To aid those who suffer with PTSD, the National
Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) is supporting
PTSD-focused research, and related studies on
anxiety and fear, to find better ways of helping
people cope with trauma, as well as better ways
to treat and ultimately prevent the disorder.
This research fact sheet will highlight several
important areas that NIMH researchers have
recently learned about:
possible risk factors,
treating the disorder, and
next steps for PTSD research.