Trauma Isn't The Only Culprit: Understanding What Causes PTSD

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a condition that can arise after very difficult experiences, such as accidents, violence, or serious illnesses. It causes the person to relive the trauma, experience constant fear, sadness, and avoid situations that remind them of what happened. A study showed that the risk of developing this disorder depends not only on the trauma itself, but also on age, social support, physical health, life history, and even genetics. Having family and friends nearby, as well as professional support, can greatly help reduce symptoms and improve quality of life.

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychological condition that can arise after an experience of great emotional impact, such as war, accidents, natural disasters, violence, terrorism, or serious illness. People with this disorder suffer from recurring memories of the trauma, avoid situations that remind them of the event, experience mood swings, and may live in a constant state of alert. This condition affects not only the patient's life, but also that of their family and their entire social network.

Although much is known about the disorder, treatments still don't offer fully satisfactory results. Furthermore, the number of people who develop the condition is very high: it's estimated that around 13 million people worldwide receive this diagnosis each year. This makes post-traumatic stress disorder not only a personal mental health issue but also a global public health challenge.

One of the most important points discussed in science is that the development of the disorder depends not only on the traumatic event itself, but also on several other interacting factors. These include the intensity and severity of the trauma, the individual's personal history, previous traumatic experiences, age, gender, physical health conditions, level of education, available social support, and even genetic and biological predispositions.

Changes in brain function, especially in areas such as the amygdala and hippocampus, and changes in the regulation of stress hormones have also been associated with the disorder.

To better understand how all these factors relate, a researcher conducted two complementary stages. The first was a review of scientific studies already published in international databases such as PubMed, Scopus, and UpToDate.

In this phase, articles published since 2010 were analyzed that investigated not only post-traumatic stress disorder itself, but also risk factors such as domestic violence, childhood trauma, previous health conditions, and lack of social support. This review made it possible to gather what had already been discovered by science about the disease.

The second phase involved a hands-on study with 250 adults aged 21 to 55, treated in healthcare settings. To ensure that only new cases were analyzed, people with previous psychiatric diagnoses or ongoing serious illnesses were excluded. Each participant's medical history was reviewed in medical records.

All participants completed a standardized 20-question questionnaire that investigated typical symptoms of the disorder, such as reliving the trauma in thoughts or dreams, avoiding painful memories, presenting a very negative mood, and living in a constant state of tension. The scores obtained on this questionnaire were compared with established medical criteria to confirm or deny the diagnosis.

The results were striking: 76% of the participants, or 190 people, presented symptoms intense enough to be diagnosed with the disorder. The most severe cases were found in individuals over 40 and in those who had suffered more serious physical injuries. On the other hand, people with mild injuries showed fewer symptoms.

An important factor that reduced the risk was social support: participants who had stable employment and good family relationships reported milder symptoms. The research also reinforced that men and women can be affected differently depending on the type of trauma: women were more vulnerable after sexual violence, while men and older adults were more affected after serious illnesses, such as strokes or heart attacks.

In conclusion, post-traumatic stress disorder is a complex condition resulting from the interaction of trauma, personal history, social context, and biological predispositions. The study shows that there are still many risk factors to be investigated and that there is no single pathway for the development of the disease.

However, it is clear that prevention and treatment must consider not only the traumatic event, but also social support, life history, and each person's biological vulnerability. These findings reinforce the importance of early intervention, social support, and new, more effective therapeutic strategies to address this growing global mental health problem.

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Study of possible risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder. 

Liana Spytska

The Humanistic Psychologist, 53(2), 313–323. 

https://doi.org/10.1037/hum0000355

Abstract: 

Recently, a large number of studies have been presented that studied psychopathologies that are connected with the impact of traumatic factors, great attention was focused on the more detailed disclosure of the problem of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, despite the increased interest in this pathology, the appearance of a significantly bigger number of patients and the negative consequences for the lives of patients and their families, the efficiency of available treatment methods remains limited and rather unsatisfactory. Therefore, the main purpose of this work was to study the impact of various factors on the probability of developing PTSD. For this, a thorough systematic search of the necessary information was conducted in the databases: PubMed, Scopus, and UpToDate, and available relevant articles were processed, as well as a survey was conducted, during which the relationship between posttraumatic stress syndrome and a medical history of a traffic accident was studied. It was concluded that currently not all possible risk factors for PTSD development have been identified. It was identified that the development of this pathology is connected with the following factors: traumatic events and their severity, individual characteristics, presence or absence of previous psychological trauma in the medical history, gender, age, presence or absence of somatic diseases in an individual, social support, education level, and genetic and epigenetic factors. The results of this study can be used for further detailed study of the PTSD nature and finding effective methods to prevent the development of this pathology. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2025 APA, all rights reserved).