Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children

Key Points Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Children

• Most of the time, children who experience very stressful events can recover quickly and well.

• When children develop long-term symptoms from stress due to a traumatic event, which are upsetting or interfere with their relationships and activities, they may have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

• The first step to treatment is to talk with a health care provider to arrange an evaluation.

Overview:

All children may experience very stressful events that affect how they think and feel. Most of the time, children recover quickly and well. However, sometimes children who experience severe stress—such as from an injury, the death or threatened death of a close family member or friend, or violence—will be affected long-term.

The child could experience this trauma directly or could witness it happening to someone else. When children develop long-term symptoms (longer than one month) from such stress, which are upsetting or interfere with their relationships and activities, they may be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Signs and Symptoms

• Reliving the event over and over in thought or in play

• Nightmares and sleep problems

• Becoming very upset when something triggers memories of the event

• Lack of positive emotions

• Intense ongoing fear or sadness

• Irritability and angry outbursts

• Constantly looking for possible threats, being easily startled

• Acting helpless, hopeless, or withdrawn

• Denying that the event happened or feeling numb

• Avoiding places or people associated with the event

Because children who have experienced traumatic stress may seem restless, fidgety, or have trouble paying attention and staying organized, the symptoms of traumatic stress can be confused with symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

Examples of events that could cause PTSD include:

• Physical, sexual, or emotional maltreatment

• Being a victim or witness to violence or crime

• Serious illness or death of a close family member or friend

• Natural or man-made disasters

• Severe car accidents

It is important to emphasize that not all children and adolescents exposed to traumatic events will develop PTSD.

Resources:

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) – American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry (AACAP) fact sheet

• Practice Parameters – AACAP health care provider guidelines for diagnosing and treating mental health conditions in children and adolescents

• CDC's Mental Health Homepage

Source: CDC Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Children