**2.5 Current definition of posttraumatic stress disorder**

Posttraumatic stress disorder is currently defined by the Diagnostic Statistical Manual – IV Text Revision as an anxiety disorder resulting from exposure to a traumatic event involving personal or secondary threat to life or wellbeing and causing intense fear, helplessness, or horror (American Psychiatric Association, 2000). Posttraumatic stress disorder is characterized by physiological hyper-arousal, avoidance of stimuli that would provoke anxiety or general emotional numbing, and recurrence of psychologically re-experiencing aspects of the trauma.
