PTSD is different for women: Why and when?

FEATURED SEARCH: ptsd

In general women are more likely to develop PTSD than men after major trauma; this has been known for a long time. The reasons why involve a more nuanced set of questions, which a team of researchers in Denmark have been pursuing for several years.

In a careful analysis of numerous studies, taking life stages and age into account, they include midlife crisis for men and menopause for women as some of the factors that may aggravate response to trauma. (They also find an up-tick in PTSD risk among very aged women. Unlike the last major study on the question, their analysis extends the age range into the 70s and 80s.) A quick look at Figure 1 in this document tells the story at a glance.

In a separate study, they found that among people who developed PTSD after an explosion in their neighborhood, women were more likely to experience anxiety and a sense of isolation, but less likely to be troubled by a sense of danger, than were men.

RESULT: The combined effect of gender and age on post traumatic stress disorder: do men and women show differences in the lifespan distribution of the disorder?
Archives of General Psychiatry | Aug 3, 2010

RESULT: Risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder following an industrial disaster in a residential area: A note on the origin of observed gender differences
Gender Medicine (PubMed) | Apr 1, 2010

What makes some women more vulnerable to PTSD than others? Investigators with the large-scale Nurses Health Study have begun looking to the genes for an explanation.

RESULT: Protocol for investigating genetic determinants of posttraumatic stress disorder in women from the Nurses Health Study II
BMC Psychiatry | May 29, 2009

Can women who have borderline personality disorder (BPD) in response to early trauma also have PTSD? If so, how do the two interact? A pioneer of BPD research, psychologist Marsha Linehan, contends that the two conditions are distinct; PTSD further roils the emotional dysregulation that is characteristic of BPD, increasing the frequency of nonsuicidal self-injury that such women use to blunt their emotional state.

RESULT: Impact of Co-Occurring Posttraumatic Stress Disorder on Suicidal Women With Borderline Personality Disorder
American Journal of Psychiatry | Sep 1, 2010

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