Acute stress disorder in children related to violence.

TOPIC: Unidentified and untreated acute stress responses in children may result in chronic posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), other serious psychiatric disorders, and/or developmental arrest.

PURPOSE: To review and identify gaps in current literature on acute stress disorder (ASD) in children and examine current treatments.

SOURCES: Review of the

CONCLUSIONS: More developmentally appropriate, standardized measurement instruments are needed. Future research must focus on prospective studies of children exposed to trauma in order to better understand the association between ASD and PTSD. Future studies must include children at different developmental stages.