For several years, our society, South Korea, has witnessed manytraumas including severe cases of child sexual abuse, children’sdeath by physical abuse, suicides of bullied adolescents, students’death on school trips, soldiers’ death by shooting in themilitary, and last year’s Sewel ferry sinking disaster where morethan 300 people died or are still missing. As a result, the termPost-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a recognized psychiatricdisorder, has been cited frequently in Korea. PTSD was firstintroduced in the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders,3rd edition (DSM-III) by American Psychiatric Associationin 1980 (1). PTSD is one of a few psychiatric disorders witha recognizable etiologic agent, trauma before its onset. Traumawas previously defined as a horrific event “beyond the scope ofnormal human experience”, direct response after severe sudden,terrifying, shocking life event such as car accident, housefire, natural disaster, war, man-made disaster, rape and otherforms of interpersonal violence. It has been expanded to includeemotional abuse, medical trauma like intrusive procedures andsurgery, sudden or violent death of someone close and indirecttrauma, witnessing someone else’s trauma. Although the term‘trauma’ had been used to describe only physical trauma untiljust few years ago, people now think of ‘psychic’ trauma firstwhen they hear the term. Although PTSD had been one of theanxiety disorders, it has been reclassified as a trauma- and stressrelateddisorder in the DSM-V in 2013 (2). The prevalence ofPTSD may vary across age and cultural groups. Twelve-monthprevalence among U.S. adults is about 3.5% (3). The older generationexperienced the Korean War and veterans who foughtin the Vietnam War may have higher rates because PTSD ismore prevalent in the combat soldiers. In the DSM-V, secondarytraumatization has been included as a cause of PTSD, likepolice officers who have been repeatedly exposed to details ofchild abuse (2). This change acknowledges the notion that repetitiverelatively small trauma can also cause PTSD as well asone big trauma.