The PTSD Criterion A Debate: A Brief History, Current Status, and Recommendations for Moving Forward

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) Criterion A, also known as the “stressor criterion,” has been a major source of debate ever since PTSD was added to the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders ( DSM ) in 1980. Since then, the traumatic stress field has held an ongoing debate about how to best define Criterion A and the events that it covers. Because of the COVID‐19 pandemic and recent race‐based incidents, the Criterion A debate has been reinvigorated. In this paper, we review briefly the history of Criterion A and changes in its language across different editions of the DSM . We then describe the four main positions held by scholars involved in the Criterion A debate and carefully examine the support for those positions. We conclude by offering recommendations for moving forward.