POSTTRAUMATIC-STRESS-DISORDER ONCE REMOVED - A CASE-REPORT

This paper describes the successful treatment of an unusual case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The case was unusual in that the patient, a 38-year-old woman, had neither experienced nor witnessed the traumatic event, but seemed to have experienced PTSD 'once removed' from the incident (the murder of her colleague). The four treatment sessions focused on traumatic events in the patient's childhood which had produced no identified symptoms, but which had become intertwined with the adult trauma to provoke the PTSD syndrome.