This study replicates and extends prior research on the relationship of childhood complex trauma (CCT) and complex posttraumatic stress disorder (cPTSD) in adulthood, examining the role of psychoform and somatoform dissociation as a potential mediator. CCT, dissociation, and cPTSD were assessed in a large sample of adult psychiatric inpatients. Almost two thirds of participants reported having experienced CCT. Path analyses with bootstrap confidence intervals demonstrated a relationship between CCT, psychoform (but not somatoform) dissociation, and cPTSD.

Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) in children and adolescents extends beyond the core PTSD symptoms to dysregulation in three psychobiological domains: (1) emotion processing, (2) self-organization (including bodily integrity), and (3) relational functioning.

2015 marks several important First World War anniversaries: the centenary of the first use of poison gas in January; the centenary of the Gallipoli landings and the Armenian genocide in April. It is also 100 years since The Lancet published Charles S. Myers’ article, A Contribution to the Study of Shell Shock.

The study of shell shock

A person's experience as a child or teenager can have a profound impact on their future children's lives, new work is showing.

Rachel Yehuda, a researcher in the growing field of epigenetics and the intergenerational effects of trauma, and her colleagues have long studied mass trauma survivors and their offspring. Their latest results reveal that descendants of people who survived the Holocaust have different stress hormone profiles than their peers, perhaps predisposing them to anxiety disorders.