14 DAY TRIAL // A recent study carried out by researchers at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine found that on average more women are diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than men, even if men were found to have faced more traumatic events than women. Writing in the Psychological Bulletin Journal, published by the American Psychological Association (APA), the team of scientists involved in the study explained that rates of PTSD diagnoses are higher among women because they are more often exposed to child sexual abuse and sexual assault they cannot easily recover from. Sexual trauma is more harmful than other types of traumatic events, as they cause more emotional suffering, said the authors of the report.
All in all, men proved to respond differently to traumas, by being more able to recover from such unhappy events and go on with their lives. On the other hand, women have more emotional responses to traumatic events and find it extremely difficult to get over traumas. Post-traumatic stress disorder is an anxiety disorder triggered by a traumatic event in one's life which causes people to become numb, to re-experience the tragic event over and over again and develop symptoms such as hyperarousal, hypersensitivity etc. Individuals with PTSD cannot go on with their lives and only focus on the traumatic event experienced - therefore they continue to live in the past, rather than in the present or for the future.
The two authors of the study, David F. Tolin, PhD, of the Institute of Living and Edna B. Foa, PhD, of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine explained: "PTSD may be diagnosed more in women in part because of the criteria used to define it. Cognitive and emotional responses to traumatic events make a diagnosis of PTSD more likely. So even though men may experience more traumas, they don't seem to have the same emotional responses to traumatic events. However, the data suggest that the female victims will have brought to the table a much greater risk of abuse and sexual assault prior to the accident; this could place them at higher risk of developing PTSD after the accident even though the current accident may not have caused all the symptoms."