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Article | March 01, 1986

Stress-Response Syndromes: A Review of Posttraumatic and Adjustment Disorders

Mardi J. Horowitz

Psychiatric Services 1986; doi:

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The author prepared this paper during a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University and is grateful for financial support provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

The Center for the Study of Neuroses at the Langley Porter Psychiatric Institute, University of California, San Francisco, 401 Parnassus Avenue, San Francisco, California 94143

1986 American Psychiatric Association

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Abstract

The signs and symptoms of response to a stressful life event are expressed in two predominant phases: the intrusive state, characterized by unbidden ideas and feelings and even compulsive actions, and the denial state, characterized by emotional numbing and constriction of ideation. In this review of stress-response syndromes, the author outlines those phases, discusses the DSM-III diagnoses for stress-response disorders, and considers the mutual etiologic effects of stressful life events, psychiatric disorders, and preexisting conflicts or functional deficits. Guidelines for brief dynamic psychotherapy for patients who need more than transient support are presented.

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