Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnamese Women

Abstract

This article describes the extraordinary events Vietnamese women immigrants and refugees experienced prior to their resettlement in the United States. Oral history data illustrate the need for sensitization to issues of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and the historical-cultural background of this special population. Oral history narratives from five Vietnamese women suggest differences in the way men and women define wartime trauma, and that women's biological makeup may precipitate some stress reactions unique to women. These narratives are examined in terms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), a diagnosis that has been applied primarily to male veterans in treating their physical and psychological problems resulting from war, not to Vietnamese women who lived under war conditions.