In terms of children, early groundwork was laid by Anna Freud, who looked at traumatized war orphans Rene Spitz, who described “hospitalism” in children who were severely neglected in institutions and David Levy, who published a landmark study in 1945 on psychic traumas connected with childhood surgeries. PTSD was first described as “shell shock” in war veterans, a diagnosis that frequently resulted in a dishonorable discharge from the army. Most authors also feel that the type of exposure is significant, with some severe exposures, such as watching the sexual assault of a parent, resulting in an incidence rate of almost 100%, while others, such as a minor dog bite, may result in much lower rates of PTSD. Here the estimates indicate that 15% to 24% of exposed individuals develop PTSD. Thus, it is probably more appropriate to look at the percentage of individuals exposed to trauma who develop PTSD rather than the percentage of the general population. In contrast to the DSM-IV numbers, Hidalgo and Davidson found prevalence of 8% to 9% in the general population and Breslau found a similar 1:12 ratio in the adult population. The DSM-IV-TR indicates that 1% of people in the general population have been diagnosed with a full syndrome and 14% with a partial syndrome. Even in the area of older youth, there is some variation in prevalence statistics. There are no studies regarding the prevalence of PTSD specifically in very young children.
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