PTSD From Your ZIP Code: Urban Violence and the Brain

A growing number of programs treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in war veterans. But far fewer treat Americans who suffer from the PTSD that comes with their ZIP code. And this kind of PTSD may be affecting even more people.

A recent study that ran in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry found that you don't even need a direct experience of a violent crime to be hurt by it. When there is a perception that there is disorder in a particular neighborhood, it causes some residents to suffer from PTSD.

While the overall rate of violent crime has gone down in the United States -- so much that some sociologists call this the era of the "Great Crime Decline" -- there are still pockets where violent crime is so concentrated that neighbors can't escape it.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/27/health/urban-ptsd-problems/