Main Entry: post–traumatic stress disorder
Function: noun
: 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 ofreminders of the event —abbreviation PTSD; called also delayed-stress disorder, delayed-stress syndrome, post-traumatic stress syndrome; —compare COMBAT FATIGUE