P.E. Ruskin and J.A. Talbott (eds.). Aging and posttraumatic stress disorder. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Press, 1996.

Abstract

Post-traumatic stress disorder refers to the aftermath of highly traumatic events involving death, serious injury, or threat to one's physical integrity in circumstances out of the ordinary, such as war, natural disasters, rape, or torture. Four chapters of this book specifically address post-traumatic stress disorder, as a late-onset or reactivated condition, in World War II veterans and older adults who survived a natural disaster. These contributions, from American and Dutch researchers, bring first-hand information on the prevalence and course of the disorder and they constitute the originality of the book. Two chapters, on the maltreatment of older adults and on the stressful impact of ordinary negative events on older adults, expand the coverage of stress in late adulthood. Starting and finishing with a discussion of general issues in stress and post-traumatic stress research, the book also contains two chapters of a more general nature on the effects of age on physiological responses to stress in both laboratory animals and human beings. Contributions providing a theoretical context for integration and drawing the therapeutic implications of the research findings would have been useful. Still, this book constitutes a unique source of information and a basic reading, given the paucity of research in the area of post-traumatic stress disorder in older adults.