Eine Vielzahl von Faktoren beeinflusst die Symptomstärke einer Posttraumatischen Belastungsstörung (PTBS). Die meisten Studien untersuchten allerdings Variabeln, die in engem Zusammenhang mit der Traumatisierung stehen, wie z. B. die subjektive Reaktion auf ein Trauma und akute Symptome, aber auch prä-traumatische Risikofaktoren. Der Einfluss von akutem Stress und Alltagsbelastungen fand jedoch weit weniger Beachtung. Dementsprechend soll in dieser Studie untersucht werden, inwieweit auch aktuelle, nicht traumatische Stressbelastungen die Ausprägung von PTBS-Symptomen beeinflussen.

The author lived in the Dutch Indies during the Second World War. The book is based on her childhood memories from the time of the Japanese occupation in Java (1942–1945), when the Europeans in Indonesia were sent to prison camps and concentration camps. She reminisces life in the Cideng prison camp as well as the position of her family as Jews in a country under Nazi influence. (bibliotheek.nl)

Community-based sociotherapy was introduced in Rwanda in 2005 in order to contribute to the healing of social worlds that were severely damaged by war and genocide. People who participate in sociotherapy perceive this intervention as medicine for their troubled hearts. Each sociotherapy group, averaging twelve people, holds fifteen weekly meetings. Two facilitators guide the group through six different phases: safety, trust, care, respect, new rules, and memory.

Dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA)-axis is thought to underlie stress-related psychiatric disorders such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Some studies have reported HPA-axis dysregulation in trauma-exposed (TE) adults in the absence of psychiatric morbidity. In this dissertation we set out to unravel part of the mechanism that underlies the complex relations between trauma exposure, stress regulation, and psychopathology. Mentally healthy TE subjects were compared with non-trauma-exposed (NE) healthy controls.