Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe, often chronic and associated with the significant level of disability disorder which develops in some persons following exposure to a traumatic event involving the actual or threatened injury to themselves or others. PTSD is characterized by the intrusive thoughts, nightmares and flashbacks of the past traumatic events, avoidance of reminders of trauma, hypervigilance and sleep disturbance, all of which lead to the considerable social, occupational, and interpersonal dysfunction.
Epidemiology and risk factors
The lifetime prevalence of the post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) ranges from 6.1% to 9.2% in national samples of the general adult population in the United States and Canada, with one-year prevalence rates of 3.5% to 4.7%.
According to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, about 8% of males and 20% of females that experienced the traumatic events have PTSD.
The prevalence rates of the post-traumatic stress disorder are significantly higher in the countries and regions where military operations occurred and range from 11% to 50% of population.
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