Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the type of psychological injury most typically cited in personal injury compensation claims.
PTSD is a natural emotional reaction to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience. It is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation and can sometimes occur after someone has lived through or witnessed a frightening incident such as a serious car accident, or was involved in a seriously frightening event.
It is thought that PTSD will affect around 5% of men and 10% of women at some stage in their lives. These are alarming figures for a very real condition.
Most people’s PTSD will last for several months. However, in some cases it may last for years or never completely go away.
In recent years, a number of soldiers who have fought in the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan have been awarded personal injury compensation for PTSD after suffering the psychological strains of warfare.
It is also true that victims of medical negligence as well as those who suffer car accidents or injury in work accidents are often entitled to claim compensation for PTSD.
Historically the courts have not been keen to award compensation for psychiatric illness arising either out of a life threatening incident as in the case of post PTSD now attracts wide-ranging compensation traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or as a result of continual overbearing stress in an employment situation, however, matters have improved over the last decade and there is now a reasonable chance of succeeding in an application for compensation for psychiatric illness.
Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is sometimes suffered after being involved in an incident which is outside or should be outside normal human experience, particularly those accidents which involve a life threatening experience. This triggers symptoms which psychiatrists recognise.
Common symptoms of PTSD that sufferers report experiencing include:
- Hypervigilance (feels like but is not paranoia)
- Exaggerated startle response
- Irritability
- Sudden angry or violent outbursts
- Flashbacks, nightmares, intrusive recollections, replays, violent visualisations
- Triggers
- Sleep disturbance
- Exhaustion and chronic fatigue
- Reactive depression
- Guilt
- Feelings of detachment
- Avoidance behaviours
- Nervousness, anxiety
- Phobias about specific daily routines, events or objects
- Irrational or impulsive behaviour
- Loss of interest
- Loss of ambition
- Anhedonia (inability to feel joy and pleasure)
- Poor concentration
- Impaired memory
- Joint pains, muscle pains
- Emotional numbness
- Physical numbness
- Low self-esteem
- An overwhelming sense of injustice and a strong desire to do something about it
Compensation for PTSD, which can be a highly debilitating and long term illness, attracts a wide range of damage compensation depending on the severity of the psychiatric injury and the length of the illness, which for many people can be an incurable chronic illness that impinges on work and all aspects of lifestyle.
For example, a woman injured in a road traffic accident suffered PTSD for six months. She still had ongoing symptoms of avoiding the place where the accident happened. During the six months she had shortness of breath, shaking, sleep loss, hot periods, nightmares, headaches loss of confidence in driving skills, became de-motivated at work and suffered reduction of libido. The damages awarded for PTSD alone, ie excluding other physical injury, wage losses and treatment costs, was £3,000.
In another case, a court decided that a woman whose 10 year old daughter was killed whilst her anorak drawstring was caught in a bus door and dragged her under the wheels was entitled to £45,000 compensation for PTSD symptoms including flashbacks, panic attacks, nausea, sleep loss, mood swings, forgetfulness, depression, excessive drinking and the need to take tranquilisers.
Stress at work
It is also now possible in certain well defined cases to claim for psychiatric illness caused as a result of an employer failing to take reasonable steps to protect an employee’s wellbeing.