Current Trauma Research: A Collaborative Review (This document reflects updates as of April 15, 2025. For the latest updates, see the working document.) The following is a working document created for and by the CAFO community. It contains the citations and abstracts of published articles that address current research related to trauma and trauma-informed models of care. Rachel Medefind, Director of the CAFO Institute for Family-Centered Healing & Health, serves as curator for the document, with submissions from researchers and practitioners from across the CAFO community and beyond.
INTRODUCTION Trauma-informed care is an emerging and dynamic field. It is rich in opportunity for fresh exploration, discovery, application, and debate. Relative to many areas of scientific inquiry, the field and many of its current paradigms are quite young. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) became an official diagnosis in 1980 in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition (DSM-III)1. The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study was published in 19982. The language of trauma-informed care began to be used in the years following the ACE Study, became more widely known between 2010-2015, and has increasingly become an expected approach for those serving vulnerable populations3.
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North, C. S., Surís, A. M., Smith, R. P., & King, R. V. (2016). The evolution of PTSD criteria across editions of DSM. , 28, 3, 28(3), 197-208. 2 Felitti, V. J., Anda, R. F., Nordenberg, D., Williamson, D. F., Spitz, A. M., Edwards, V., & Marks, J. S. (1998). Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study. American journal of preventive medicine, 14(4), 245-258. 3 US Department of Health and Human Services. (2014). SAMHSA's concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma-informed approach.