Are Women affected with PTSD more than men?

In the past few years, there has been growing evidence that women are affected with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) far more than men. Such studies have been conducted by Davidson 1991, Helzer 1987(NIMH Epidemiologic Catchment Area Study), Bromet and Kessler 1995 (National Co-morbidity Study), and Breslau et al 1991.

In his report of 1991, Breslau stated that although women had a higher rate of PTSD than men did, they were less likely to be involved in a traumatic event then men. However, having been exposed to a traumatic event they were more likely to develop PTSD! He also stated that in their lifetime, women were twice as likely to develop PTSD as men.

Breslau broke traumatic events down into the following categories:
- Assaultive violence
- other injury or shocking event
- Learning of traumas to others
- Sudden unexpected death of relative or friend.

Although men may have a higher risk of exposure to assaultive violence, women have a greater risk of developing PTSD when exposed to assaultive violence.

Assaultive violence was further broken down into the following categories:
- Rape
- Sexual assault other than rape
- Military combat
- Being held captive, being tortured or kidnapped
- Being shot or stabbed
- Being mugged
- Being heldup or threatened with weapons
- Being badly beaten up

In a study Breslau did of 1007 men and women he found that the risk of developing PTSD from any trauma was 13% in women and 6.2% in males. What is the reason for this large difference? A woman's risk of developing PTSD following exposure to assaultive violence was 36% as opposed to 6% in men. Breaking these statistics down further, he found that in the category of assaultive violence women had a higher risk of PTSD in rape (49% vs. 0%), sexual assault other than rape (24% vs. 16%), mugging (17% vs. 2%), held captive, tortured or kidnapped (78% vs. <1%) or badly beaten up (56% vs. 6%).

These statistics go a long way in proving that PTSD affects women more than men. And that the causes are due to situations where men (in most cases) use control over women. There are other differences too, Women suffer more psychological reaction to outside events, which are symbolic of the original event (flashbacks etc.), and an exaggerated startle response. They also suffer more symptoms following assaultive violence then men. The average time to remission of the illness is 35 months in women as opposed to 9 months in men.  Is this due to physical and/or emotional differences between men and women,

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