Published in the year 1985, Trauma and its Wake is a valuable contribution to the field of Counseling and School Psychology.

First published in 1987. Trauma and Its Wake, Volume II: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Theory, Research, and Treatment is the eighth book in the Psychosocial Stress Book Series. The purpose of the Series is to develop and publish books that in some way make a significant contribution to the understanding and management of the psychosocial stress reaction paradigm. The books are designed to advance the work of clinicians, researchers, and other professionals involved in the varied aspects of human services. The primary readership of this Series includes those practitioners, scholars, and their students who are committed to this purpose. The origin of this current book can be traced to Volume #4 in the Series, Trauma and Its Wake: The Study and Treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, edited by Charles R. Figley. This was the first attempt to generalize research and clinical findings among a wide variety of traumatic or catastrophic events towards a generalized view of traumatic and post-traumatic stress reactions. Chapters focused on the immediate and long-term psychosocial consequences of exposure to one of many types of catastrophic events: war, rape, natural disasters, incest. Other chapters focused on effective methods of treating or preventing stress reactions or disorders. It is the first in a series of books that will review the latest innovations in theory, research, and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), caused by a wide variety of stressful life events. The book you are reading is the second of this series of annually published volumes on PTSD within the Book Series.

Over 100 researchers from 16 countries contribute to the first comprehensive handbook on post-traumatic stress disorder. Eight major sections present information on assessment, measurement, and research protocols for trauma related to war veterans, victims of torture, children, and the aged. Clinicians and researchers will find it an indispensible reference, touching on such disciplines and psychiatry, psychology, social work, counseling, sociology, neurophysiology, and political science.

Culture and PTSD examines the applicability of PTSD to cultural contexts beyond Europe and North America and details local responses to trauma and how they vary from PTSD as defined by the American Psychiatric Association.

The editors of Beyond Trauma: Cultural and Societal Dynamics have created a volume that goes beyond the individual's psychological dynamics of trauma, exploring its social, cultural, politica!, and ethical dimensions from an international as well as a global perspective. In the opening address as International Chair of the First World Conference of the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies on Trauma and Tragedy: The Origins, Management, and Prevention of Traumatic Stress in Today's World, June 22-26, 1992, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, the conference that formed the foundation for the col lected chapters in this volume, 1 commented: This meeting is a landmark in accomplishing the Society's universal mission. Our distinguished International Scientific Advisory Committee and Honor ary Committee, whose membership was drawn from over 60 countries, the cooperation of six United Nations bodies, and the participation anei endorse ment of numerous nongovernmental organizations and institutions attest to the Society's emerging presence as a major international forum for profes sionals of ali disciplines working with victims and trauma survivors.

This book could not have been conceptualized or published 20 years ago. Indeed, it is doubtful that we could have organized the material for this handbook 10 years ago. Over the last 20 years, however, the painstaking efforts of many clinical researchers working with a variety of resistive psychopathologies have resulted in specific psychotherapies and pharmacotherapies that are effective with a significant propor tion of patients, at least for some of the disorders. Much clinical research remains to be carried out in the forthcoming decades. But now that we are nearing the 21st century, at least some statement about efficacy can be made. In 1967, Gordon Paul succinctly stated that the ultimate goal of treatment outcome research is to determine "What treatment, by whom, is most effective for this individual with that specific problem, and under which set of circumstances" (p. 111). At that time, empirical evaluations of psychosocial and pharmacologic treatments were few and far between. Methodological strategies for determining treatment effectiveness were also in the formative stage, as exemplified by introduc tion of control groups that received inactive interventions (i. e. , placebo) and the relatively recent practice of comparing two or more treatments in addition to placebo. In the almost three decades since Paul's oft-quoted dictum, both the quantity and the quality of treatment outcome research with adults have increased dramati cally.