Considering that trauma is a risk factor for virtually all mental disorders (particularly depressive, anxiety, dissociative, personality), the multi-finality of trauma (some survivors are resilient, and some develop PTS and/or non-PTS symptoms), and the various symptoms that trauma survivors express (mood, cognitive, perceptual, somatic), it is difficult to classify PTS. Because the human mind best comprehends categories, reliable classification generally necessitates using a categorical nosology but PTS defies categories (internalizing and/or externalizing, fear-based and/or numbing symptoms), the authors conclude that PTS-like DSM-5's panic attacks specifier-is currently best conceptualized as a specifier for other mental disorders.
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