Gender Differences in Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms after a Terrorist Attack: A Network Approach.

Marianne S Birkeland,Øivind Solberg,Ines Blix,Trond Heir

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2017.02091

Abstract

Background: Posttraumatic stress symptoms are more prevalent in women than in men. To improve our understanding of gender differences in PTSD, detailed knowledge about the underlying symptom networks and gender specific symptom profiles is needed.Objective: We aimed to describe the gender differences in levels of individual posttraumatic stress symptoms after a terrorist attack, as well as identify possible gender differences in associations between posttraumatic stress symptoms.Method: This study used survey data from ministerial employees directly (n = 190) and indirectly (n = 1,615) exposed to the 2011 Oslo bombing. Data was collected approximately 10 months after the event. In order to investigate gender differences in levels of symptoms, we used bootstrapped means and standard deviations. Network analyses were conducted to identify gender differences in the associations between posttraumatic stress symptoms.Results: Women reported higher levels of all symptoms, and the strongest effect sizes were found for symptoms of re-experiencing, and anxious and dysphoric arousal. Among individuals with considerable levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms, women reported higher levels of physiological cue activity and exaggerated startle response. No significant gender differences in the networks of posttraumatic stress were found.Conclusions: The present results find no indication that the gender difference in prevalence of PTSD can be explained by differences in associations between symptoms. In order to determine if this finding can be applied to other participants and circumstances, future studies should seek to replicate this study in both community and clinical samples.

Highlights

After experiencing a traumatic event, women have twice the probability of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), compared to men (Kilpatrick et al, 2013; Pineles et al, 2017)
Re-experiencing symptoms such as recurrent or distressing recollections and dreams in the acute phase were predictive of PTSD diagnosis 6 months after the traumatic event (Haag et al, 2017)
We have explored the network of posttraumatic stress symptoms in the directly exposed sample (Birkeland and Heir, 2017)

Summary

Introduction

After experiencing a traumatic event, women have twice the probability of developing posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), compared to men (Kilpatrick et al, 2013; Pineles et al, 2017). Crosssectional studies examining networks of posttraumatic stress symptoms have found that re-experiencing symptoms, especially physiological reactivity, were central to other symptoms (Armour et al, 2017; Bryant et al, 2017; McNally et al, 2017). To improve our understanding of gender differences in PTSD, detailed knowledge about the underlying symptom networks and gender specific symptom profiles is needed

Methods

Results

Conclusion