General public definition
- Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) is listed as a diagnosis in the ICD-11, but not in the DSM-5-TR.
- C-PTSD is a type of posttraumatic stress disorder that results from experiencing repeated, severe psychologically traumatic events that the person cannot escape, such as adverse childhood experiences or situations of forced captivity and torture.
- People with C-PTSD have a profound loss or absence of a sense of identity and difficulty controlling their emotions. They are often involved in unstable relationships as adults, and often have patterns of impulsive choices, feelings of emotional instability, and behavioural problems. Sometimes they experience chronic unhappiness, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts.
- There is evidence that people with C-PTSD are likely to experience dissociative symptoms such as periods of amnesia where they cannot remember their actions, have feelings of unreality or of losing time, or experience themselves as having fragmented or multiple personalities.
- Complex trauma is often used to refer to C-PTSD.
Academic definition
- Complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD) is listed as a diagnosis in the ICD-11, but not in the DSM-5-TR.
- C-PTSD meets the DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria for posttraumatic stress disorder, with additional criteria, as specified in the ICD-11.
- C-PTSD is distinguished from posttraumatic stress disorder mainly by the protracted and interpersonal nature of the potentially psychologically traumatic event(s) (e.g. chronic childhood sexual abuse by a trusted person such as a parent, or an extended period of captivity and torture, including incarceration in a concentration camp); the subsequent distortions of the person’s sense of self and core personal and social identity; and the significant emotional dysregulation. Posttraumatic stress disorder is more typically associated with a discrete psychologically traumatic event or a series of psychologically traumatic events that usually occur after 19,20
- Judith Herman, one of the pioneers investigating childhood psychological trauma, has described C-PTSD in detail.
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