Reconsidering the definition of trauma

The definition of trauma has evolved and expanded over the past four decades as knowledge regarding life experiences that cause psychological distress has grown. Concurrently, the field has repeatedly grappled with what exactly constitutes trauma. There is an important, and in many respects obvious, disconnect between the definition of trauma in the DSM-5 and the experiences reported by people who have symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related disorders. The events that researchers, clinicians, and policy makers have defined as traumatic do not capture all events reported by people who have post-traumatic psychological distress. 1 Mol SS Arntz A Metsemakers JF Dinant G-J Vilters-Van Montfort PA Knottnerus JA Symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after non-traumatic events: evidence from an open population study. Br J Psychiatry. 2005; 186: 494-499 Crossref PubMed Scopus (211) Google Scholar For example, our work using Danish national registry data showed that probable traumatic events (ie, not confirmed criterion A events) increased the risk of a range of psychiatric diagnoses, including stress disorders and PTSD. 2 Gradus JL Rosellini AJ Szentkúti P et al. Using Danish national registry data to understand psychopathology following potentially traumatic experiences. J Trauma Stress. 2022; 35: 619-630 Crossref Scopus (1) Google Scholar