Introduction to PTSD Signals

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a medical condition caused by direct exposure to a severe traumatic experience. PTSD is the most commonly diagnosed neuropsychiatric disorder among deployed and post-deployed military populations. Most people with this diagnosis adapt through mental health treatment or other psychosocial support. However, a significant subset develops chronic PTSD, a highly disabling, and potentially fatal condition. A method within projective assessment psychology infers clinical meaning and develops diagnostic hypotheses from a person’s writings about self or others to detect possible signals of PTSD. A contemporary adaptation uses anonymous social media texts and postings. In order for clinicians-raters to rate these anonymous social media texts for the presence and frequency of suspected signals of PTSD, a lexical ontology was developed. This process involved creating an expert-generated list of words, terms, and symptoms beyond the standard 17 definitional symptoms in the official diagnostic psychiatric manual Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th Edition Text Revision) (DSM-IV-TR). A final list of 65 terms was developed and categorized into five Level 1 categories: Behavioral, Cognitive, Emotional, Functional, and Physical. The utility of this approach is discussed in subsequent chapters.