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Disasters traumatically expose normal populations to severe threats to life, deaths of relatives and massive environmental destruction. Epidemiological studies found that women would be more vulnerable to disaster than men. In this study, we examined gender differences in short-term psychological effect of the 1999 earthquake in Turkey on adult survivors. A total of 184 subjects (79 males and 105 females) who used a psychiatric service were interviewed within 6-10 weeks after the earthquake. All subjects were assessed using a modified version of the Mississippi Scale for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, the Beck Depression Inventory, the Beck Hopelessness Scale, and four subscales (depression, anxiety, hostility and somatization) of the Symptom Check List (SCL-90-R). Women had higher mean total Mississippi Scale scores than men (84.29 vs. 78.72; P<0.05). Women scored higher on the Beck Depression Inventory and the Beck Hopelessness Scale than men (respectively 16.3 vs. 10.4; P<0.001 and 7.5 vs. 6.0; P<0.05). Women had significantly higher depression (1.40 vs. 0.94; P<0.001), anxiety (1.46 vs. 1.12; P<0.05) and somatization (1.31 vs. 0.84; P<0.001) subscale scores of the SCL-90-R than men. These findings indicate that women may experience more severe psychological reactions than men after a disastrous earthquake.

The size of MI, a gender difference midline structure, is smaller in females with schizophrenia, and the results of this study support other studies of structural aberration of the thalamus and other midline structures in the brains of patients with schizophrenia.

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This study assessed the effect of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) on sexual function. Twenty-three outpatients who met Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) diagnostic criteria for OCD were obtained from consecutive cases recruited to Osmangazi University Department of Psychiatry and were compared to a group of 26 generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) female outpatients. Psychiatric, psychological, and sexual information was obtained with the Maudlsey Obsessional-Compulsive Inventory (Hodgson & Rachman, 1977), the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, Gorsuch, & Lushere, 1970), and the Golombok Rust Inventory of Sexual Satisfaction (Rust & Golombok, 1986). We found that the women with OCD were more sexually nonsensual, avoidant, and anorgasmic than the women with GAD. These data suggest that OCD may be a risk factor for sexual problems in women.