Mental Health Related to Traumatic and Adverse Experiences

Dear Colleagues,

There is a wealth of interest and work in the field of trauma recovery. Typically, trauma recovery has focused on researching and understanding the nature of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). However, more recently, the global community is experiencing events which do not fit neatly into the criteria used to define a trauma which would qualify a person for the diagnosis of PTSD according to established medical diagnostic nomenclature (i.e., DSM, ICD). There is growing recognition that events, which we can term “adverse” (e.g., unemployment, chronic medical illnesses, extreme weather events), require a broadening of the standard diagnostic nomenclature to capture their impact on the mental and physical health of individuals.

The field of trauma recovery is broad and includes researchers and health professionals from across a variety of academic and medical disciplines. It is worthwhile to examine adverse events from a multidisciplinary perspective, which can help capture the true impact of such events on people. There is growing focus on outcomes such as sleep disturbance, chronic pain, spiritual impact, community impact, work performance, to name a few. Such a wholistic perspective also informs recovery, in terms of guiding treating professionals in interventions leading to multiple pathways to recovery.

This special issue of Healthcare, entitled “Mental and Physical Health Related to Traumatic and Adverse Experiences”, has the ambitious goal of garnering research and review papers from scholars from across medical and academic disciplines with the hope of identifying work that will contribute to the recognition and recovery of people experiencing traumatic and adverse experiences. Multidisciplinary research projects are especially encouraged. Papers focusing on both Criterion A traumatic events, using traditional diagnostic nomenclature (i.e., PTSD), and those focusing on adverse events, which are typically not considered as Criterion A, but nonetheless lead to similar stress-related outcomes, are welcomed. In addition, papers focusing on recovery, including identification of mental, physical, and alternative health interventions for such traumatic and adverse events will be considered.

Dr. Connie Veazey

Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Healthcare is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Trauma Recovery
• Traumatic Events
• PTSD
• Adverse Events