Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that may develop after being exposed to one or more traumatic events that threated to or caused grave physical harm. (Wikipedia)

These traumatic events could be natural (earthquakes, floods, hurricanes, etc.) or man-made disasters (terrorist attacks, military combat, motor vehicle accidents, etc.) or violent physical attacks such as rape, physical and/or sexual abuse and other crimes.

People who suffer from PTSD can have difficulty functioning in their everyday lives, their personal relationships and their jobs. Kids may experience difficulty in school and become withdrawn and begin having phobias.

Many people with PTSD recurrently "re-experience" the traumatic event they went through in the form of flashbacks, memories, nightmares or scary thoughts, especially when exposed to things that remind them of the trauma.

PTSD is diagnosed when symptoms go on for more than one month.

Roxane Silver is a psychologist who studied the effects of 9/11 on New York City and Washington, D.C. The study focused "immediate long-term responses to the attacks" and revealed that the severity of exposure to the event "predicted the level of distress among people," instead of the degree of loss.

To cite an example, people who saw the plane slam into the the WTC building experienced more PTSD symptoms than average. On the other hand, people who experienced financial loss due to the attacks did not have symptoms.

Other researches showed that even watching the attacks on television can be traumatic to some people, particularly to those who have pre-existing medical conditions or experienced greater exposure to the event.

Fortunately, research has shown that that psychological intervention can aid in preventing these "long-term, chronic psychological consequences."

Cognitive-behavioral therapies (CBT) are proven to be very effective in significantly reducing PTSD symptoms (generally 60-80 percent) in many civilian populations, particularly rape survivors.

War veterans who had PTSD after prolonged and repeated exposure to traumatic events also received moderate benefits from CBT (not surprisingly, this kind of repeated trauma is harder to cure).

[CBT strive to help traumatized individuals understand and manage the anxiety and fear they are experiencing.]

Research also shows that short, specialized interventions may effectively prevent PTSD in some subgroups of trauma patients.

Psychologist E.B. Foa and colleagues developed brief cognitive-behavioral treatments that include:

• education
• different forms of relaxation therapy,
• repeated encounter with the actual traumatic stress agent and with situations that evoke trauma-related fears (in vivo exposure).
• cognitive restructuring (techniques for replacing catastrophic, self-defeating thought patterns with more adaptive, self-reassuring statements).

Used within a few weeks of exposure to traumas, Foa's short therapy often prevents PTSD in survivors of sexual and nonsexual assaults.

R. A. Bryant's research meanwhile, revealed that cognitive-behavioral treatment can also help keep survivors of motor vehicle and industrial accidents from having PTSD.

Apart from brief, targeted interventions, Bryant says some trauma survivors may benefit from counseling or treatment. Candidates for this kind of treatment include:

• survivors with a history of previous traumatization (e.g., survivors of the current trauma who have a history of childhood physical or sexual abuse) or
• those who have preexisting mental health problems.