Although natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina can have an impact on the development of PTSD, it has been shown that the chances are increased when the trauma is man-made.
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Risk and Protective Factors
It's estimated that around 70 percent of Americans have endured some traumatic experience within their lifetime [source: Psychguides]. This may come in the form of a bad car wreck, a rape or an assault. It can be surviving a natural disaster, a loved one dying unexpectedly, or even killing another person, as in war.
From early research it was first believed that all people are at equal risk of developing PTSD after experiencing a trauma. Further study has revealed that there are some risk factors that make one person more likely to develop PTSD than another.
One of the biggest risk factors for the development of PTSD is a prior trauma. People who have already undergone one traumatic experience and then suffer another are more likely to develop PTSD than a person who experiences a single trauma [source: NCPTSD].
A hormone in the brain called glucocorticoid help control our response to stress, and after a traumatic experience, this hormone can become depleted. When another trauma is suffered, and the glucocorticoid levels are already low, the stress response to the experience can be more intensified. This condition can increase the likelihood of the person developing PTSD.
Personality traits have also been shown to play a part in the development of PTSD. People whose personalities involve an optimistic outlook on life -- a belief that there's order to the universe, and that other people are generally good -- have less of a chance of developing PTSD after suffering a trauma. So, too, do people who are resourceful -- individuals who tend to take obstacles and challenges head-on [source: NCPTSD].
Conversely, those who display problem-avoidance behavior have been shown to have an increased risk of developing PTSD. This indicates that part of the development of PTSD is increased by the avoidance symptom -- the desire to ignore the trauma rather than address it [source: NCPTSD].
Research has shown that a good relationship with your father may decrease the likelihood of developing PTSD.
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People who are college educated are less likely to suffer from chronic PTSD. So are people who have or had a good relationship with their father. At the same time, people who were raised in an abusive environment were more likely to develop PTSD. It also appears that women are less likely to develop PTSD, a finding from the Vietnam study.
What has come to be viewed as the most important factor in the development of PTSD is the existence of a strong social support network. Time and again, people who have close relationships with those around them have been shown to be much less likely to develop PTSD and are more likely to recover from PTSD. Trauma counselor Jacob Lindy referred to this network as a trauma membrane, the group of people who form a protective cover over the person who has suffered the trauma and protect that person from suffering further damage [source: Reason].
It should be noted, however, that what's most important about this social network is how it's perceived by the sufferer. A well-intentioned but overbearing support network will have a less positive effect than one which allows the sufferer to grieve on his own terms [source: Perry].
