The authors examined the effects of wartime stressors in a sample of 69
Vietnam veterans who were psychiatric inpatients in a Veterans
Administration hospital. Participation in atrocities and the cumulative
exposure to combat stressors, each independently of the other, conferred a
significant risk for posttraumatic stress disorder. In contrast, the effect
of these war experiences on the onset of panic, major depression, and mania
was not significant. The results indicate that extreme stressors are
uniquely linked with posttraumatic stress disorder's characteristic cluster
of symptoms but challenge DSM-III's implicit assumption that the
reexperienced trauma is the stressor responsible for posttraumatic stress
disorder.Abstract Teaser