Message from the Director

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

This year marks the Center’s completion of 22 years of dedicated service to Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, the Department of Defense, and our nation in advancing trauma knowledge and trauma-informed care. The Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress (CSTS) continues to grow and expand its research, education and consultation in the domains of disaster psychiatry, the neuroscience of traumatic stress, understanding and support of first responders, and care of our nation’s soldiers, sailors, airman and marines who experience high stress operations on behalf of national security. Through domestic disasters that endanger civilian communities and engage the support of our military, the Center has uniquely bridged the fields of disaster and military psychiatry. Our work integrates principles of disaster preparedness, response and recovery to foster individual, community, organizational and public health.

The Center has been and continues to be a pioneer in generating and disseminating knowledge to mitigate the impact of disaster and trauma exposure. Through the Center’s involvement and leadership with renowned disaster experts, the arsenal of early intervention for disaster now includes Psychological First Aid. The Center was the first to inform the Department of Defense and the nation about stress exposure to the dead and body recovery essential in the aftermath of serious trauma. Center scientists were the first to identify trends of escalation in child neglect amongst military families in times of war. The Center with its collaborative networks is at the forefront in examining the neuroscience of posttraumatic stress disorder in the human brain and to have confirmed its findings in animal models. Through the Center’s cutting edge research, understanding of community variables that contribute to resilience and recovery in the face of disaster and the neuroscience of posttraumatic stress disorder are closer to our grasp.

This year the Center became a component center of the Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury institutionalizing the Center as the leading academic arm and source of knowledge around traumatic stress. The Center continues to focus on the horizon and to identify new and critical issues for the science and care of those exposed to war, traumatic events and disasters. We invite you to read about our work in more depth in the following pages.

Robert J. Ursano, M.D.
Professor and Chairman, Department of
Psychiatry, Uniformed Services University
Director, Center for the Study of Traumatic Stress