This book presents a new model on trauma. A new factor in this book is the impact of the child developmental stage itself on the perception of traumatic events. This concerns the way trauma influences the performance of the developmental tasks, a formative developmental perspective. A frame of...

The process that resulted in the diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed., DSM-5, American Psychiatric Association, 2013) was empirically based and rigorous. There was a high threshold for any changes in any DSM-IV diagnostic criterion. The process is described in this article. The rationale is presented...

The Life Events Checklist for DSM-5 (LEC-5) is a self-report measure designed to screen for potentially traumatic events in a respondent's lifetime. The LEC-5 assesses exposure to 16 events known to potentially result in PTSD or distress and includes one additional item assessing any other extraordinarily stressful event not captured in the first 16 items.

The greater emphasis on scientific evidence and the high threshold for changing any criterion in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders (4th ed., DSM-IV) probably account for many key differences between the DSM-5 and the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (11th ver., ICD-11) with regard to diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Important questions about PTSD remain that can only be settled by future research.