How to manufacture data to ‘validate’ complex PTSD

When your diagnosis isn’t valid, don’t despair. Conduct circular surveys of your colleagues and get published in peer-reviewed journals.

CATEGORY: CONTROL OF LANGUAGE AND IDEAS

Martin Robinson, PhD

Source: European Journal of Psychotraumatology
Read time: 1.9 minutes
 
This Happened
A study to rank the barriers to treatment for complex PTSD was published in the most recent issue in the leading European journal on trauma, European Journal of Psychotraumatology [1].
Who Did This?
Martin Robinson, PhD, is a psychologist at Queen’s University Belfast. He has first-authored 14 peer-reviewed papers, mostly on complex PTSD, and been secondary-author on 14 others.
Co-author Christine Courtois, PhD, was one of the earliest enthusiasts for complex PTSD, publishing one of the first books on the subject in 2008.
The Claim
The researchers created a survey of 21 potential barriers to complex PTSD intervention based on expert opinion, and then sent it to over 500 clinicians who were part of a complex trauma mailing list [2]. Only 28 clinicians responded. Not surprisingly, the respondents ranked all the potential barriers as substantial obstacles. The top three most highly rated barriers were:

1. Lack of support for clinicians.
2. Patients’ prior treatments were unsatisfying.
3. Patients perceived stigma and felt misunderstood.

The rationale for this study was not clearly stated. The authors simply asserted there was “a need to synthesize information on barriers to effective CPTSD-specific intervention.”
Analysis
Complex PTSD is not a validated disorder and remains controversial. As noted here and here, there are no reputable diagnostic validation data, which is why it was rejected by both the DSM-IV and the DSM-5.

So, the noteworthy feature of this study is not the findings, but that researchers could conduct such a ludicrous study and get it published in a somewhat reputable journal.

This is a pattern for supporters of complex PTSD who repeatedly send surveys to themselves and conclude that they found evidence that complex PTSD is real:

• In 2005, a survey sent to clinicians likely to believe in complex PTSD asked them to describe trauma experiences and symptoms of their past patients [3]. 

• In 2011, a survey asked twenty-five complex trauma experts and twenty-five PTSD experts to rate symptoms believed to be part of complex PTSD and what treatment techniques worked best [4].
• In 2013, a survey sent to a self-selected group of clinicians asked them to rate four vignettes of fabricated patients [5].
• In 2016, a survey sent to clinicians asked them to make diagnoses for eleven fabricated patients [6].
• In 2019, a survey asked clinicians to rate symptoms of patients they had seen in the past using only their memories of those patients and their progress notes [7].

Why Is This Happening?
Complex PTSD was invented out of thin air over three decades ago with the radical aim of redefining personality disorders as trauma disorders (see here). Driven by a radical feminist clinician, it was part and parcel of the larger ideological capture of academia by progressive, neo-Marxism that believes human nature is highly malleable and guided by an oppressor-versus-oppressed framework. The continued popularity of complex PTSD is a hoax created by a self-reinforcing echo chamber of believers who conduct these studies and who peer review and edit the journals. Because complex PTSD is not a valid disorder, its supporters have to conduct surveys of themselves to affirm its existence.
 

References
[1] Martin Robinson and Christine A. Courtois. “Understanding barriers in supporting service users with complex post-traumatic stress disorder: a pilot survey,” European Journal of Psychotraumatology Dec;16(1) (2025):2516286.
[2] The Complex Trauma Special Interest Group is sponsored by the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies.
[3] Joseph Spinazzola et al. "Survey evaluates complex trauma exposure, outcome, and intervention among children and adolescents," Psychiatric Annals 35 (2005): 433-439.
[4] Marylene Cloitre et al. "Treatment of complex PTSD: Results of the ISTSS expert clinician survey on best practices," Journal of Traumatic Stress 24 (2011): 615-627.
[5] Julian D. Ford et al. "Clinical significance of a proposed developmental trauma disorder diagnosis: Results of an international survey of clinicians," Journal of Clinical Psychiatry 74 (2013): 841-849.
[6] Jared W.  Keeley et al. "Disorders specifically associated with stress: A case-controlled field study for ICD-11 mental and behavioural disorders," International Journal of Clinical and Health Psychology 16 (2016): 109-127.
[7] Jonathan DePierro et al. "Beyond PTSD: Client presentations of developmental trauma disorder from a national survey of clinicians," Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice and Policy 14(7) (2022 Oct):1167-1174. doi: 10.1037/tra0000532.