Gender differences in the expression of PTSD symptoms among active duty military personnel

• Women expressed more distress than men across almost all the symptoms and factors on the PTSD Checklist, Civilian Version (PCL-C).
• More women than men were distressed by combat experiences that involved some type of hurt, such as being wounded, witnessing or engaging in acts of cruelty, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, and, to a lesser extent, handling dead bodies.
• Men who had been sexually abused had a greater number of symptoms and were consistently more distressed than women on individual symptoms and symptom factors.
• Men had higher scores than women on the Emotionally Numb factor after controlling for demographics, combat experiences, sexual abuse history, and substance abuse.
• Gender differences in PTSD symptoms of military personnel depended on the types of trauma and combat exposures experienced, and the time when sexual abuse took place.

This study examined gender differences in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms and symptom factors in the total U.S. active duty force. Data were drawn from the 2008 Department of Defense Survey of Health Related Behaviors among Active Duty Military Personnel including 17,939 men and 6751 women from all services. The results indicated that women expressed more distress than men across almost all the symptoms on the PTSD Checklist except for hypervigilance. Women also scored significantly higher on all four factors examined: Re-experiencing, Avoidance, Emotionally Numb, Hyperarousal. More women than men were distressed by combat experiences that involved some type of violence, such as being wounded, witnessing or engaging in acts of cruelty, engaging in hand-to-hand combat, and, to a lesser extent, handling dead bodies. Men who had been sexually abused had a greater number of symptoms and were consistently more distressed than women on individual symptoms and symptom factors.