Posttraumatic stress disorder : conceptualization and psychopharmacological treatment update

Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is characterized by four symptom complexes: the reexperience/intrusion of the traumatic event, a state of hyperarousal when exposed to traumatic events, emotional block and emotional/affective deregulation with negative cognitive and mood alterations. Its evolution tends to be chronic and its related with a significative morbidity, affecting the functionality of the individual in his interpresonal, social and employment areas. In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association includes PTSD in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III), and thereafter several research studies are developed to evaluate the effectiveness of drugs on its treatment. After reviewing its conceptualization, a critical review of published literature is made in order to provide an update on evidence-based pharmacotherapy of PTSD. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) and serotonin- sorepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) are the drugs that have proven most effective, achieving the degree of recommendation for first line use.