Volunteer participation in tasks atypical to the defined occupational role was a significant risk factor for PTSD. Other risk factors included exposure intensity, earlier start date, duration of time spent on site, and constant, negative reminders of the trauma. Additional research has been performed to understand the social consequences of the September 11 attacks. Alcohol consumption was assessed in a cohort of World Trade Center workers using the cut-annoyed-guilty-eye (CAGE) questionnaire for alcohol use disorder. Almost 50% of World Trade Center workers who self-identified as alcohol users reported drinking more during the rescue efforts. Nearly a quarter of these individuals reported drinking more following the recovery. If determined to have probable PTSD status, the risk of developing an alcohol problem was double compared to those without psychological morbidity. Social disability was also studied in this cohort as a social consequence of the September 11 attacks. Defined by the disruption of family, work, and social life, the risk of developing social disability increased 17-fold when categorized as having probable PTSD. Anthropology
Cultural and medical anthropologists have questioned the validity of applying the diagnostic criteria of PTSD cross-culturally. Trauma (and resulting PTSD) is often experienced through the outermost limits of suffering, pain and fear. The images and experiences relived through PTSD often defy easy description through language. Therefore, the translation of these experiences from one language to another is problematic, and the primarily Euro-American research on trauma is necessarily limited.
Ranking the countries by the male-only or female-only rates produces much the same result, but with less meaningfulness, as the score range in the single-sex rankings is much-reduced (4 for women, 3 for men, as compared with 14 for the overall score range), suggesting that the differences between female and male rates, within each country, is what drives the distinctions between the countries.As of 2017, the cross-national lifetime prevalence of PTSD was 3.9%, based on a survey were 5.6% had been exposed to trauma. The primary factor impacting treatment-seeking behavior, which can help to mitigate PTSD development after trauma was income, while being younger, female, and having less social status (less education, lower individual income, and being unemployed) were all factors associated with less treatment-seeking behaviour. United States
The National Comorbidity Survey Replication has estimated that the lifetime prevalence of PTSD among adult Americans is 6.8%, with women (9.7%) more than twice as likely as men (3.6%) to have PTSD at some point in their lives. More than 60% of men and more than 60% of women experience at least one traumatic event in their life. The most frequently reported traumatic events by men are rape, combat, and childhood neglect or physical abuse. Women most frequently report instances of rape, sexual molestation, physical attack, being threatened with a weapon and childhood physical abuse. 88% of men and 79% of women with lifetime PTSD have at least one comorbid psychiatric disorder.