post-traumatic stress disorder
post–traumatic stress disorder
nounDefinition of POST-TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER
: a psychological reaction that occurs after experiencing a highly stressing event (as wartime combat, physical violence, or a natural disaster) outside the range of normal human experience and that is usually characterized by depression, anxiety, flashbacks, recurrent nightmares, and avoidance of reminders of the event—abbreviation PTSD; called also delayed-stress disorder, delayed-stress syndrome, post-traumatic stress syndrome; compare combat fatigue
