Intended for healthcare professionals

Rapid response to:

Education And Debate

The invention of post-traumatic stress disorder and the social usefulness of a psychiatric category

BMJ 2001; 322 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.322.7278.95 (Published 13 January 2001) Cite this as: BMJ 2001;322:95

Rapid Response:

Re: The Convenience of Debating Unexperienced Pain

Summerfield's article did not deny that overwhelmingly frightening
and painful experiences can and do cause prolonged suffering and
difficulties, some of which is described in the criteria for PTSD. He did
not write that none of us suffer as the result of overwhelming experience
or try to portray that suffering as trivial or minor. Instead Summerfield
questioned the point of describing that suffering as an illness.

Competing interests: No competing interests

29 January 2001
Grace Heckenberg
City of Portland, Oregon