Acute Stress Disorder

If someone is unfortunate enough to witness an event in which they or another individual experienced a fatality, devastating injury, physical destruction, or a serious threat, it is likely that they will display feelings of fright, vulnerability, or dismay. If this is the case, acute stress disorder (ASD) can set in within a month of the traumatic event. A patient diagnosed with ASD is a strong candidate for developing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

In the early part of the 20th century, soldiers who fought in World War I that showed signs of ASD were characterized as being "shell shocked." It was often hard to distinguish what sort of trauma had caused the combatant's symptoms because a victim of a concussion caused by exploding shrapnel may respond very similar to one who had received a blow to the central nervous system. Civilians living in a combat zone can also show signs of ASD. Recent studies have even shown that for a brief time span, people might show symptoms linked to PTSD immediately following a traumatic situation.

Symptoms

To qualify as ASD, any of these following symptoms must be present for at least two days and may last as long as a month from the date of the traumatic event. If other health conditions do not offer a solid explanation for the presence of the symptoms, a patient may receive a diagnosis of ASD for lack of anything making better sense. If a month has passed and symptoms still have not subsided, the diagnosis of ASD is recognized as PTSD. Symptoms may include:

Emotional indifference or unresponsiveness.
Lowered awareness of surrounding environment.
Loss of sense of reality.
Disassociation from one's inner feelings.
Memory loss in terms of what happened during the traumatic event. This is also known as dissociative amnesia.
Heightened feelings of nervousness and anxiety that encourage or discourage sleep.
Difficulty experiencing gratification.
Reliving the traumatic event via thoughts, flashbacks, and dreams.
Intentional evasion of thoughts, conversations, locations, people, or things that bring back memories of trauma.
Stressful feelings that disrupt skills required for daily living (e.g., occupational skills).

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