Low-Magnitude Stressor

An outdated term that refers to stressful life events or experiences believed by some scholars to be of insufficient gravity to cause PTSD. As a result, these stressors are excluded from PTSD eligibility criteria in the DSM. Some research studies have challenged this belief, demonstrating that low-magnitude stressors are just as likely as high-magnitude stressors to be associated with symptoms of PTSD, dissociation and other forms of psychiatric impairment.