Overview of Psychological Trauma

The aim of the paper is to provide a overview of different facets of psychological trauma. Psychological trauma otherwise known as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, has significant prevalence globally, affecting those who are involved and those around them. This paper is an attempt to provide comprehensive information of psychological trauma, its observation in history, its evolution in diagnostic criteria until the most recent version of DSM. Epidemiology of psychological trauma reveals that PTSD has considerable prevalence in the general population. Gender differences, trauma in children and adolescence, areas of trauma studies in Indian context, assessment tools for measuring PTSD, the biological basis for psychological trauma are also discussed along with the new but controversial field of transgenerational epigenetics. The paper also highlights different evidence-based therapies.