 Psychopharmacologic treatment of PTSD has been informed by only limited empirical data. Prior to the recently completed multi-site trials for sertraline conducted by Pearlstein and colleagues which found efficacy for women but not men suffering from chronic PTSD, there were only a handful of published randomized controlled trials. An overview of this literature suggests that tricyclic antidepressants, monoamine inhibitors and selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors SSRIs show promise, usually with better responses in civilians with PTSD than in male veterans with combat-related PTSD. Although results from open-label studies of alpha-2 agonists, beta blockers, anticonvulsants, and mood stabilizing agents appear to be promising, at present no one agent has emerged as useful for a broad range of PTSD sufferers. 