Event, stress and psychological trauma
Clervoy, P.; Mèle, E.; Corcos, M.
La Revue du Praticien 53(8): 829-831
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 0035-2640 PMID: 12793164 Document Number: 560440
The study on stress and trauma leads us to distinguish between two categories of events: those that involve constraint as opposed to those that involve intrusion. This distinction is more than just a philosophical speculation since it allows us to infer clinical manifestations of wide ranging acute disturbances while in the field, as well as the manifestations of highly characteristic delayed disturbances that can sometimes arise month after exposure to trauma. The epidemiology of delayed manifestations related to psychological trauma indicates that these are common disturbances marked by their persistence and chronicity. These manifestations present a variety of public health problem: the need to anticipate and prepare acute rescue efforts to be introduce in case of disasters, the need for specific and extended individual follow-up, and also, from a medico-legal perspective, the question of compensation that may arise later on.