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some women develop PTSD after a traumatic childbirth.

PTSD may also occur following a heart attack or diagnosis of cancer.

Avoidance: Avoiding thoughts, feelings, activities, places, and people associated with the trauma. This may result in social withdrawal and becoming numb to positive as well as negative emotions.

Symptoms lasting more than three months are considered chronic PTSD

Occasionally, someone develops “delayed PTSD” six months later or more, following a reminder of the event.

In the June 28, 2004, Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers from the Veterans Administration reported that women with PTSD have more medical conditions and worse physical health than non-traumatized women, even those with depression.

“The amygdala appears to be overreactive in PTSD. We’re currently examining whether it is already overreactive, making someone more vulnerable to PTSD, or becomes that way in response to trauma,”

the hippocampus and the anterior cingulate cortex, appear not to function as well in those with PTSD.”

gradual and repeated exposure can reduce symptoms and help change how you respond to the triggering situations.

although not all clinical trials have shown them to work better than placebo.

adrenaline acts to strengthen memories,

testing whether an adrenaline-reducing medication, the hypertension drug propranolol, might help block abnormal memory formation and prevent PTSD.

it may be as common, or more common, in ICU patients as in soldiers

"We need to pay more attention to preventing and treating PTSD in these patients."

they often experience flashbacks about delusions or hallucinations they had in the hospital

being given sedatives and narcotics -- may lead to "memories" of horrible things that didn’t happen

"One woman thought her husband and the nurse were plotting to kill her,"

For the study, the Johns Hopkins team observed 520 mechanically ventilated patients with ALI,

The researchers found that 66 of the 186 patients (35 percent) had clinically significant symptoms of PTSD,

Sixty-two percent of the survivors who developed PTSD still had symptoms at their two-year visit.

Half of this same group was taking psychiatric medications, and 40 percent had seen a psychiatrist in the two years since being hospitalized with ALI.

The researchers also found that patients with depression before hospitalization were twice as likely to develop PTSD,

This inflammation may lead to a breakdown in the blood-brain barrier, which alters the impact on the brain of narcotics, sedatives and other drugs prescribed in the ICU.

Bienvenu says patients who have these risk factors need special attention. Simply educating them and their primary care doctors about the increased risk for PTSD would be a step in the right direction, he adds.

he symptoms fall into three categories: reliving the traumatic experience (flashbacks, nightmares), avoidance (feeling numb, detached, staying away from people and places that serve as reminders of the experience), and hyperarousal (being easily startled, having difficulty sleeping, irritability).

"psychological rehab" now deserves attention.

The intervention reduced PTSD symptoms by helping patients make sense of their ICU memories,

Of the soldiers who experienced any potentially traumatic combat exposures, only 31.6% developed the PTSD syndrome.

This suggests that there were other factors and vulnerabilities involved for the minority of exposed who did end up developing the PTSD syndrome.

Among these factors, childhood experiences of physical abuse or a pre-Vietnam psychiatric disorder other than PTSD were strong contributors to PTSD onset.

The combined data from all three primary factors — combat exposure, prewar vulnerability, and involvement in harming civilians or prisoners — revealed that PTSD syndrome onset reached an estimated 97% for veterans high on all three.

these results emphasize the need to keep the more vulnerable soldiers out of the most severe combat situations.

Dohrenwend and colleagues also point out that the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, like the Vietnam War, are “wars amongst the people,” and they underline the need for research examining the circumstances in which harm to civilians and prisoners is likely to occur. Such research could provide important clues for preventing such devastating violations of the rules of war.

"These (simulations) are intended to expose the recruits to combat conditions to teach them that they can trust their training, that they can actually do their jobs, perform first aid, execute whatever orders they're supposed to be executing, under combat condition," he said. "It also introduces them to fear and stress under combat conditions."

who tosses volunteers out of airplanes with sensors all over their bodies to try and understand why combat veterans develop PTSD.

Parodi has found that some people possess an optimal fear response, which she calls the "warrior brain" — meaning they think clearly during a stressful period and once the stressful period ends, their fear response returns back to normal.

"As far as to the application to preventing PTSD, I think what the military ultimately wants to do is to be able to develop and incorporate into their training program, similar to what the SEALS are doing, where you can expose recruits to stressful situations," he said. "But you also want to arm them with the psychological tools — that they need to recognize, that they need to function at maximum capacity during the stressful situation. And when it ends, they need to put it behind them and move on."

But the current treatment has a success rate of just 40 percent.