A 15-year-old girl after a horrific road traffic accident had to stay in the hospital for 3 days. Since her discharge she developed a fear of travelling on the road. She often has had nightmares and disturbed sleep. She explained that she often feels like living the car accident repeatedly for 3 months. What is the likely condition?
The principal features of Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are painful re-experiencing of the event (reliving experience, frightening dream with unrecognisable content in children), avoidance (avoiding the things or places involved in the trauma), emotional numbing and constant hyper arousal (anger, irritability, difficultly falling asleep etc). Ref: Kaplan and Sadock's Synopsis of Psychiatry: By Benjamin J. Sadock, Harol I. Kaplan, Virginia A. Sadock, 2007, Page 615; DSM IV, American Psychiatric Association: PTSD.
Dissociative Accident Disorder
Specific Phobia
Post traumatic stress disorder
Somatoform Disorder