Home Health Center Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)   Diagnosing PTSD

Diagnosis of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

 The doctor will begin the evaluation by taking a complete medical history followed by a physical examination. The doctor may ask you to undertake a few laboratory tests to rule out any physical illness. If no physical illness is found, the doctor will refer you to a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental healthcare professional.

Psychiatrists and psychologists use special assessment tools to evaluate a person for an anxiety disorder. For a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder to be made, a person must exhibit at least on re-living symptom, three avoidance symptoms and two increased arousal symptoms for at least one month. In addition, the symptoms must result in impaired functioning and cause significant distress. The doctor will determine if the symptoms coupled with the degree of dysfunction indicate PTSD. A diagnosis of PTSD requires that the symptoms be present for more than one month.

As such, there are no tests for post-traumatic stress disorder but a self-test for PTSD is available from The National Institute of Mental Health.

A diagnosis of PTSD can be difficult for a mental health professional to make since patients frequently complain of symptoms other than anxiety associated with a traumatic experience. Some of these symptoms includes depression, drug abuse and body symptoms (somatization). Studies of Iraq war veterans show that these individuals exhibit physical symptoms rather than those associated with emotional disturbances.

People with PTSD may have a history of attempted suicide, depression and drug abuse. PTSD may also occur along with bipolar disorder, eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia, and other anxiety disorders like obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), panic disorder and generalized anxiety disorder. 

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References

1. Chris Freeman, Psychological and drug therapies for post-traumatic stress disorder, Psychiatry, Volume 5, Issue 7, July 2006, Pages 231-237, ISSN 1476-1793, 10.1053/j.mppsy.2006.06.001.
2. R. Yehuda, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Overview, In: Editor-in-Chief:  Larry R. Squire, Editor(s)-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of Neuroscience, Academic Press, Oxford, 2009, Pages 853-858, ISBN 9780080450469, 10.1016/B978-008045046-9.00095-4.
3. Rianne Stam, PTSD and stress sensitisation: A tale of brain and body: Part 1: Human studies, Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, Volume 31, Issue 4, 2007, Pages 530-557, ISSN 0149-7634, 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2006.11.010.