OBJECTIVES: To update the main aspects of the clinical presentation and diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and to discuss its validity as a nosological entity and its comorbidity. METHODS: It was carried out a description of the clinical symptomatology, focusing on its phenomenological significance and literature review on comorbidity and diagnostic validation. RESULTS: The clinical manifestations of PTSD can be divided into three symptomatological groups according to traumatic reexperience, avoidance and numbing, and psychic arousal. Growing evidence derived from a number of epidemiological and neurobiological studies has confirmed the PTSD diagnostic structure, especially the construct's validity. The presence of comorbid disorders in about 80% of the cases draws attention to the diagnosis formulation, whether the diagnostic criteria are imprecise, allowing the superimposition of other disorders' symptoms, and contributing to an overestimation of comorbid prevalence. CONCLUSION: PTSD is considered a valid diagnosis, as long as it also recognizes and legitimates the clinical condition, which is not necessarily temporary, derived from the psychological trauma.
Stress disorders; post-traumatic; Anxiety disorders; Diagnosis
