Gender differences in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder in a general psychiatric practice.

OBJECTIVE

This report examined gender differences in the clinical manifestations of current posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in treatment-seeking patients.

METHOD: Outpatients with PTSD (N=138) were interviewed with the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV.

RESULTS

Compared with male patients, female patients experienced more reexperiencing symptoms and were more likely to meet criteria for current PTSD and to report sexual trauma as their index trauma. Men with PTSD were more likely than women with PTSD to meet criteria for a substance use disorder and for antisocial personality disorder. No gender differences were found in the frequency of other types of comorbid disorders, the number of comorbid disorders, or the presence of PTSD as a primary disorder.

CONCLUSIONS

Overall, male and female patients with current PTSD present with fairly comparable clinical profiles.