![]() 7 We would like to emphasize that there are no standard male or female response types to traumatic stress, but some features are more common in women and others in men. ![]() Which factors may help us understand why men and women respond differently to trauma? We describe how gender differences in the characteristics and timing of the traumatic event, as well as in the immediate and later biological and psychological reactions to the event, can impact how people respond to trauma. 6 With regard to the expression of PTSD symptoms, men might be more likely to feel anger and to have trouble controlling their anger, whereas women might feel more often anxious and depressed, as well as easily startled. Women have higher rates of reexperiencing events and of negative alterations in cognition or mood, 5 dissociative responses, and a range of other posttraumatic reactions. Gender differences in PTSD symptoms that are due to stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic have also been reported, with women scoring significantly higher than men. For instance, women report reexperiencing the event and anxious arousal more often than men, 3 although a study looking at PTSD trajectory symptom courses over 1 year after admission to emergency departments found that a recovering trajectory is more prevalent in women, while men more often showed a delayed onset of their symptoms. 1,2 It is not just the prevalence of PTSD that differs between women and men, but also their PTSD subcluster scores. These include being easily startled and having angry outbursts, sleeping problems, or difficulty concentrating on everyday tasks.Īlthough men experience traumatic events more often than women overall, studies have shown that women are 2 to 3 times more likely to develop PTSD after experiencing a traumatic event than men: about 10% to 12% in women compared with 5% to 6% in men. Several cognitive and mood alterations-such as memory problems, negative thoughts or feelings, and high arousal levels-may manifest themselves in several ways. Individuals with PTSD will try to avoid these memories by not talking about them or by staying away from situations where potential triggers might be present (eg, the store where the robbery took place or watching the news about current combat events or natural disasters). These unwanted memories cannot be controlled, and the event may feel like it is happening again. A hallmark symptom is the reexperiencing of the traumatic event in the form of nightmares or flashbacks or reliving the event upon certain triggers. Posttraumatic stress disorder ( PTSD) is a mental health disorder that arises after experiencing a traumatic event in about 10% of exposed individuals.
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