 Because of the initial overt focus on PTSD as a combat related disorder when it was first fleshed out in the years following the war in Vietnam, in 1975 Ann Wolbert Burgess and Lynda Lytle Holmstrom defined Rape trauma syndrome, RTS, in order to draw attention to the striking similarities between the experiences of soldiers returning from war and of rape victims.This paved the way for a more comprehensive understanding of causes of PTSD.After PTSD became an official psychiatric diagnosis with the publication of DSM-III (1980), the number of personal injury lawsuits (tort claims) asserting the plaintiff suffered from PTSD increased rapidly.