The weaker sex? Gender and post-traumatic stress disorder

We discuss the gender-specific differences for traumatic events and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as found in the epidemiological literature. Recent research literature consistently reports three interesting findings: 1) men experience traumatic events more often, 2) women and men differ in the type of traumatic experiences they experience, and 3) women more often develop PTSD after the experience of a traumatic event. In the second part of the present article we provide some explanations for these differences. The reported higher vulnerability of women for PTSD could be due to the methodology used, the higher prevalence of childhood sexual abuse and rape in women, the different coping styles of women and men, or the more limited socio-economic resources of women.