August 16, 2005
PTSD and combat stress:
The BBC have created an in-depth website dedicated to understanding war-related PTSD and combat stress.
In retrospect, there are accounts of combat stress from as far back as ancient times, although the long-term effects of combat-related trauma were first taken seriously as 'shell shock' during World War One.
The psychiatrist W. H. R. Rivers was one of the pioneers in understanding and treating these extreme combat reactions. His real-life treatment of the war poet Seigfried Sassoon was the subject of Pat Barker's the Booker prize winning novel Regeneration.
The BBC website charts the history of the conditon, and includes audio, images and stories from those affected by PTSD, including soldiers and their doctors and relatives.
Treatments for the combat trauma are also discussed, and several people have added their own experiences of combat stress to the website, illustrating the journalists angle with real-life accounts.
Link to BBC World Combat Stress website.
Link to information on PTSD.
