PTSD Diagnosed More in Women

Different responses to trauma might explain disparity, study suggests.

By Serena Gordon
HealthDay Reporter
Monday, November 20, 2006; 12:00 AM

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MONDAY, Nov. 20 (HealthDay News) -- Even though men are more likely to experience a traumatic event, women are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

That's one of the conclusions of a new study appearing in the November issue of the American Psychological Association's Psychological Bulletin.

"Men and women might react to traumas in very different ways," explained the study author David Tolin, director of the Anxiety Disorders Center at the Institute of Living, in Hartford, Conn. "The way the diagnosis is currently written may stack the deck for more symptom endorsement in women."

But, he added, "The diagnosis of PTSD is a work in progress. It has changed with each edition of the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), and that's a good thing. It means we're actively thinking about it and working on it."

Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder caused by a traumatic event, such as a sexual assault, an accident, a combat experience or witnessing or being a victim of other violent events. Symptoms of the disorder include reliving the experience in your mind over and over again, feeling numb emotionally, having difficulty with personal relationships, and sleep difficulties, according to the National Institutes of Mental Health.

Tolin and his colleague, Edna Foa, from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, reviewed 25 years of studies done on PTSD to see if there were any significant gender differences.

The meta-analysis included 290 studies done between 1980 and 2005. During that time period, the researchers found that women had a twofold higher risk of being diagnosed with PTSD compared to men.

The researchers wondered if that was because women experienced more traumatic events than men did. So, they went back to the previous studies and re-examined them to see which gender experienced the most traumatic events. This analysis found that men had a 23 percent higher chance of having been involved in a traumatizing event than women.