Abstract

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) presents a prolonged/delayed reaction to a traumatized event that manifests itself in psychological consequences such as avoiding traumatic reminders, re-experiencing a traumatic event, and intensifying body arousal. Decades of research of this disorder resulted in the expansion of knowledge through the identification of various risk and protective factors, and the determinants and correlates of its acute and chronic course. The aim of this paper is to provide a more comprehensive overview of the current discoveries of biological, psychological, and social factors of risk and correlates of the disorder as well as the determinants of its acute and chronic course. Research findings in this area address the areas of biological, psychological, and social factors underlying the development of this disorder and suggest the need for an integrative approach to understanding its origin. The findings from the understudied, but highly-relevant field of socio-economic risk factors are also presented. The conclusions of a lot of research in this area, particularly its chronic course, are related to obstacles in terms of the difficulty of distinguishing factors that represent premorbid factors than those resulting from the course of the disturbance itself.