Late Breaking News Who Is More Likely to Develop PTSD? Women
Have More Sexual Trauma; Men Have Greater Combat Exposure Paula
P. Schnurr, Ph.D. The ongoing conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
are enabling researchers to learn more about a question that has
plagued them for decades: Is there a difference between men and
women who serve in the military when it comes to incidence of
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? Unfortunately, the jury
is still out, according to Paula P. Schnurr, PhD, research
professor of psychiatry at Dartmouth Medical School, deputy
executive director of the VA National Center for PTSD, and lead
author of a ground-breaking study of women veterans and PTSD.1
“My study was done because women had not been included
historically in studies of treatments for all conditions,” she
says. In terms of the general population, in samples of all
types and studies outside of North America, women are more
likely than men to have PTSD — in fact, a twofold increase,
according to Schnurr. “One source of t