Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in Legal Litigation

 Once a controversial issue, PTSD has recently become more and more accepted as a disorder in the field of psychology. PTSD refers to the “re-living” of a traumatic situation after the fact, or simply the negative after-effects of a traumatic event. We see PTSD in war veterans, rape victims, and survivors of natural disasters, etc. In any population that experiences sudden or intense trauma (including survivors of traumatic brain injuries), we predict greater chances of developing PTSD than in the normal population. Symptoms of PTSD include flashbacks, insomnia, loss of appetite, depression, and anxiety.

Research on the relation between PTSD and legal litigation remains in its infancy. Neuropsychologist Sam Goldstein explains that some studies have shown an increase in severity of PTSD symptoms in populations experiencing legal litigation. Studies have also demonstrated that financial compensation post-litigation does not decrease the severity of PTSD symptoms. https://askcompetentlawyer.com/civil-litigation/ Thus, while the litigation process may act as a secondary stressor adding to a victim’s ongoing traumatization, it does not appear the litigation process acts as a cure to this traumatization.

Further, PTSD symptoms tend to increase and decrease in severity over time. The unpredictability of these flows, along with the lack of a clear illustration of a specific causal link between individual experience and PTSD symptoms, make it difficult for forensic psychologists to predict “why, how, and for how long PTSD symptoms will present, evolve, and maintain.”