A bit more on Post Traumatic Stress disorder

Sashi had commented that all elephants do not develop PTSD, though subjected to violence as part of training. There is nothing unusual here. This is true for humans as well. All the parties involved in traumatising people (both perpetrators and victims - isn't it poetic justice: both victims and perpetrators developing the same disorder?) do not go on to develop PTSD. In fact this is true for all diseases. All exposed to pathogens - TB bacillus or other bacteria - do not develop the disease.
Another point is the role of serotonin in PTSD. Serotonin dysfunction has been found in patients suffering from PTSD.
In clinical practice the number of PTSD cases is not very large. This may be because the severe trauma needed for its development does not occur in usual social life. PTSD is more common in victims of severe riots, people trapped in combat zones, severe natural disasters, torture etc.
But it is also true that many psychiatric assessments miss out this condition because the interviewers fail to ask appropriate questions.

Many of my colleagues and myself have had occasions to see cases being treated as mild anxiety/phobia or depression turning out to be true PTSD on detailed evaluations. Usually the victims have suffered from sexual assaults, or tortures. Some were innocent victims of violent assaults on others. I have treated a person who developed PTSD after he witnessed the execution of a convict in Saudi Arabia. He walked into a junction crowded with people unknowingly. The traffic was in stand still. A man was kneeling on the road with head stooped. The executors cut his neck in broad daylight in front of several people. My patient developed PTSD symptoms within a few days. He had to come down to Kerala for treatment.