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What's the post-traumatic stress disorder? Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a major public health problem by virtue of its frequency, chronicity and the disability it generates in daily life. PTSD has been known since Antiquity and explored by military psychiatrists and early psychoanalysts, but today more than ever it is a topical issue because of the large number of events such as terrorist attacks or meteorological disasters that occurred lately in France and outside the country. This disorder is characterized by four main dimensions: reexperiencing, avoidance, hyperarousal, and cognitive and mood disturbances. Sleep is very often disrupted and comorbidity is common. The suicidal risk is also frequent. PTSD can affect anybody even though a number of individual risk factors have been identified, such as gender, socio-economic status and psychiatric or traumatic history, with a special focus on peri-traumatic dissociation. As we know, this disorder is the result of exceptional events but is can also be the consequence of more "daily" events which general practitioners are often the first to be consulted for. Despite an apparent "popularization" of the symptoms by greater media coverage, this specific disorder is still poorly understood in its definition and in routine medical practice., Competing Interests: Les auteurs déclarent n’avoir aucun lien d’intérêts.

Treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. Psychological traumas, whose cares are complex, need to be furthermore clarified since they recently became a major public health issue in the wake of the terrorists' attacks that struck France over the past three years. It is its temporality since the event which will determine the type of disorder which might appear thus its adequate processing treatment. In the short term, in the context of collective events or disasters, treatments of psychological suffering by the Medico-Psychological Units (CUMP) are very specific by combining sorting out and direct health care to the victims as well as indirect care such as crisis management. For the health practitioner, a precise knowledge of the disorders which might appear at the early stage, prior to the onset of PTSD, is mandatory. Likewise, approaching a patient with a high emotional load requires specific skills. This is about establishing a real therapeutic alliance with the patient, key factor to prevent a more embedded pathology. Medical treatments at this stage are yet sparsely codified. When pathology is confirmed, post-traumatic stress disorders together with the existence of potential comorbidity (depression, addiction, etc.) require specialized care. Targeted psychotherapies are the first-line treatments, often combined with medical treatments (SSRI antidepressants, for instance) depending on the symptom's seriousness. Sleep disorders, likely conditioning the pathology, will require heightened vigilance. In any case, medication should be adapted to the patient. Similarly, elements of relational approach, any advice, or other health lifestyle rules together with referral to more specific cares, should be individualised., Competing Interests: Les auteurs déclarent n’avoir aucun lien d’intérêts.