Disentangling sex differences in PTSD risk factors
Recommended Citation
Haering S, Seligowski AV, Linnstaedt SD, Michopoulos V, House SL, Beaudoin FL, An X, Neylan TC, Clifford GD, Germine LT, Rauch SL, Haran JP, Storrow AB, Lewandowski C, Musey PI, Jr., Hendry PL, Sheikh S, Jones CW, Punches BE, Swor RA, Gentile NT, Hudak LA, Pascual JL, Seamon MJ, Pearson C, Peak DA, Merchant RC, Domeier RM, Rathlev NK, O'Neil BJ, Sanchez LD, Bruce SE, Harte SE, McLean SA, Kessler RC, Koenen KC, Powers A, and Stevens JS. Disentangling sex differences in PTSD risk factors. Nat Ment Health 2024; 2(5):605-615.
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
5-1-2024
Publication Title
Nat Ment Health
Abstract
Despite extensive research on sex/gender differences in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), underlying mechanisms are still not fully understood. Here we present a systematic overview of three sex/gender-related risk pathways. We assessed 16 risk factors as well as 3-month PTSD severity in a prospective cohort study (n=2924) of acutely traumatized individuals and investigated potential mediators in the pathway between sex assigned at birth and PTSD severity using multiple mediation analysis with regularization. Six risk factors were more prevalent/severe in women, and none were more pronounced in men. Analyses showed that acute stress disorder, neuroticism, lifetime sexual assault exposure, anxiety sensitivity, and pre-trauma anxiety symptoms fully mediated and uniquely contributed to the relationship between sex assigned at birth and PTSD severity. Our results demonstrate different risk mechanisms for women and men. Such knowledge can inform targeted interventions. Our systematic approach to differential risk pathways can be transferred to other mental disorders to guide sex- and gender-sensitive mental health research.
PubMed ID
39534178
Volume
2
Issue
5
First Page
605
Last Page
615
