A 28-year-old single woman presents to her general practitioner and explains that she has been experiencing recurrent nightmares over the past 2 months. She was involved in a road traffic accident 4 months ago. The car that she had been driving crashed on the motorway killing a colleague who had been her passenger. She also sustained injuries which required a 2-week stay in hospital. Mental state examination She makes good eye contact. She appears to be anxious and has tremors in both hands.
She is reluctant to speak about the road traffic accident and starts shouting, becoming verbally aggressive when questioned about the accident. There is no pressure of speech. She describes experiencing the accident as recurrent intrusive imagery. She feels guilty about surviving the accident and states that it would have been better if she had died instead of her colleague. She has thoughts that…
