Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) is a mental health condition that can develop if you experience chronic or long-term trauma. It is sometimes abbreviated as c-PTSD or CPTSD. CPTSD is caused by severe, chronic, or extremely threatening trauma, which can include emotional, psychological, physical, and/or sexual abuses; domestic violence; living in a war zone; or being held captive, among many other grueling conditions. Unlike PTSD, which is caused by a single traumatic event, CPTSD is caused by prolonged or repeated trauma.

CPTSD involves all of the core symptoms of PTSD, such as flashbacks, nightmares, and avoidance of triggers, in addition to symptoms that reflect the global impact of the trauma, such as difficulty controlling emotions, feeling very angry or distrustful towards the world, constant feelings of emptiness or hopelessness, feeling as if you are permanently damaged or worthless, and feeling as if you are completely different from other people.

CPTSD is often comorbid with dissociative disorders, including dissociative identity disorder (DID) or other specified dissociative disorder (OSDD), as well as borderline personality disorder (BPD), depressive or bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorders, eating disorders, and substance abuse.

There are several therapies used to treat CPTSD, such as trauma-focused cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) . Cognitive processing therapy (CPT) is another type of trauma-focused therapy that focuses on addressing the distressing and often problematic thoughts and emotions that have developed since the traumatic event(s) . Currently, there are no medications approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat PTSD or CPTSD.