When PTSD Is Claimed in New York Civil Litigation

Stephan M. Carlson, MD, MBA, FAPA · Civil Psychiatric IME

A PTSD damages claim asks a psychiatric expert to answer two different questions. First, does the diagnosis fit the criteria? Second, if PTSD or trauma-related symptoms are present, how much of the resulting impairment is attributable to the event in suit rather than to the plaintiff’s prior history or intervening stressors? Many contested PTSD opinions fail at the second step. PTSD begins with the stressor criterion Posttraumatic stress disorder is unusual because its first criterion is an event. DSM-5-TR requires exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence before the symptom clusters are considered. That threshold matters in litigation because the alleged qua

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