Chris R. Brewin

TL;DR: The effect size of all the risk factors was modest, but factors operating during or after the trauma, such as trauma severity, lack of social support, and additional life stress, had somewhat stronger effects than pretrauma factors.

TL;DR: A cognitive theory of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is proposed that assumes traumas experienced after early childhood give rise to 2 sorts of memory, 1 verbally accessible and 1 automatically accessible through appropriate situational cues.

TL;DR: The evidence reviewed suggests that claims concerning the general unreliability of retrospective reports are exaggerated and that there is little reason to link psychiatric status with less reliable or less valid recall of early experiences.

TL;DR: A comparative analysis and evaluation of three recent theories of posttraumatic stress disorder is provided, including Foa and Rothbaum's emotional processing theory, and Ehlers and Clark's cognitive theory, to identify promising areas for further research.

TL;DR: It is argued that when researchers focus on only the most scientifically sound research--studies that use prospective designs or include multivariate analyses of predictor and outcome measures--relatively clear conclusions about the psychological parameters of disasters emerge, and that social relationships can improve after disasters, especially within the immediate family.