"How can we best understand PTSD? Why do the majority of people who are exposed to traumatic stress fail to develop PTSD? Is PTSD best regarded as a failure or delay in the natural processes of protection and recovery? This book represents the fruits of ten years' experience of working with the survivors of accidents and disasters. The contributors have all worked at the world-famous University of London Institute of Psychiatry's unit for the study and treatment of PTSD, and thus combine here to present a coherent account of PTSD and its treatment, based largely on a social learning and cognitive behavioural framework."--Jacket. "All psychologists, psychiatrists, therapists and planners with a special interest in or responsibility for dealing with PTSD will welcome this volume."--Jacket.

Post-traumatic stress disorders in adults /William Yule, Ruth Williams and Stephen Joseph -- Post-traumatic stress disorders in children and adolescents / William Yule, Sean Perrin and Patrick Smith -- Attributional processes, coping and post-traumatic stress disorders / Stephen Joseph -- Social support and mental health following trauma / Stephen Joseph -- Personality and post-traumatic stress disorder / Ruth Williams -- Cultural aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder / Padmal de Silva. Psychobiology of post-traumatic stress disorder / Hassan Hagh-Shenas, Laura Goldstein and William Yule -- Intrusive thinking in post-traumatic stress disorder / Padmal de Silva and Melanie Marks -- Use of information-processing paradigms to investigate post-traumatic stress disorder: a review of the evidence / Sian Thrasher and Tim Dalgleish -- Cognitive theories of post-traumatic stress disorder / Tim Dalgleish -- Debriefing and crisis intervention / Rachel Canterbury and William Yule. Behavioural and cognitive behavioural interventions in the treatment of PTSD / David Richards and Karina Lovell -- Eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing / Patrick Smith and William Yule -- Planning a psychosocial response to a disaster / Rachel Canterbury and William Yule / Conclusions: an integrative psychosocial model of PTSD / Ruth Williams and Stephen Joseph.