This is an updated guideline from NICE on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD. The last guideline came out in 2005. I don’t think this really changes our management much (i.e. watch and wait for 1 month and then refer for most patients), but I will summarise the symptoms we should be looking out for and also the management. I found it very interesting what the evidence was for different treatments and was a bit surprised.
I use the term ‘clinically important symptoms’ of PTSD. NICE advises that these are people who reach the threshold for diagnosis of PTSD, but who don’t yet have a diagnosis of it. It seems to be a term mainly used in research.
I also use the term CBT quite freely as we aren’t going to be deciding on what kind of CBT a patient has.
