Sex differences in the trauma-related symptoms: A pilot study

Abstract

Introduction:During the year 2014, a part of the population from Serbia was exposed to floods. After natural disasters and other types of extreme trauma, some people will be more affected by trauma than others. How women and men differ, in the symptoms that can manifest after the exposure to extreme trauma, is still an open question. Aim: To evaluate if there are differences in the severity of trauma-related symptom clusters between the sexes (re-experiencing, avoidance, negative cognitions and mood, and arousal; according to DSM V) and in expiriencing negative emotional states (depression, anxiety, stress). Material and methods: Forty healthy volunteers from Obrenovac (25 women and 15 men) were administered with three instruments: The Life Events Checklist − LEC-5, PTSD checklist for DSM V -PCL-5 and Depression Anxiety Stress Scale − DASS. Results: The majority of subjects reported floods as the major lifetime trauma (72.5%). Despite the relatively low level of the post-traumatic symptom intensity (5.02 ±4.99), women exhibited significantly higher total post-traumatic symptom severity scores in comparison to men (p<0.01) and higher severity of trauma re-experiencing symptoms (p<0.01). Sex differences were neither observed in other trauma-related symptoms clusters, nor in the severity of current depression, anxiety and stress symptoms. Conclusion: In the non-clinical sample, with only a sub-threshold level of post-traumatic symptoms, the most prominent difference between sexes was found in relation to reexperiencing and this finding is consistent with the results obtained from clinical samples. Future studies are needed, in order to examine whether trauma-focused treatments can be gender-tailored and to which extent they might prevent the full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder. ABSTRACTMedicinski podmladak / Medical Youth Jerotić S. et al. Sex differences in the trauma-related symptoms -a pilot study. MedPodml 2016, 67(3):68-73 69SAŽETAK Uvod: Tokom 2014. godine deo stanovništva Srbije bio je izložen poplavama. Nakon prirodnih nepogoda ili drugih snažnih trauma, osobe koje su doživele traumatsko iskustvo mogu da reaguju na različite načine. Na koji način se razlikuju reakcije osoba muškog u odnosu na osobe ženskog pola pitanje je na koje i dalje nema definitivnog odgovora. Cilj: Ispitati postojanje polnih razlika u izraženosti simptoma povezanih sa traumatskim iskustvima (ponovno proživljavanje traume, izbegavanje stimulusa koji podsećaju na traumu, negativna kognicija i raspoloženje, povišena razdražljivost) prema DSM-V, kao i prema intenzitetu negativnih emocionalnih stanja (depresija, anksioznost, stres). Materijali i metode: Četrdeset zdravih, odraslih dobrovoljaca (25 žena i 15 muškaraca) ispitani su upotrebom tri instrumenta procene: Upitnikom o životnim događajima za DSM-V (LEC-5), PTSP upitnikom za DSM-V (PCL-5), kao i Skalom depresivnosti, anksioznosti i stresa (DASS). Rezultati: Najveći broj osoba je identifikovao poplave kao dominantnu životnu traumu (72,5%). Uprkos relativno niskom nivou intenzitet...

Predictors of depression, anxiety and stress during the first wave of the covid-19 pandemic: The results of an online survey in Serbia

“…Our study results are in line with two recent studies [8,15] , as our findings show that females were more susceptible to increased chances of having anxiety. Following a natural disaster (floods in Serbia from 2016), women were found to be more likely to re-experience trauma than men, while there were no differences in the levels of depression, anxiety and stress measured by the DASS-21 questionnaire between genders [16] . Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, women in Serbia were more likely to show symptoms of anxiety, depression and stress on the DASS-21 questionnaire, but without a significant prediction of the severity of the gender-related disorder in the multivariate model.…”

The Self-Administered Version of the Structured Interview for Disorders of Extreme Stress (SIDES-SR) in a Clinical and Non-Clinical Portuguese Sample

“…In the clinical sample, females who reported the occurrence of trauma had significantly higher DESNOS symptomatology than males, in all but two SIDES-SR domains. Although prior research has corroborated females’ proneness to developing PTSD following exposure to a traumatic event [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], to our knowledge, research on gender differences in DESNOS symptomatology is scarce. The current findings confirm that, similar to PTSD, DESNOS symptomatology is also more frequent in females than in males.…”

“…The following outcomes were expected (a) the Portuguese version of the SIDES-SR would demonstrate a six-factor structure and internal consistency levels, similar to those obtained with the original test [ 1 , 8 ]; (b) the Portuguese SIDES-SR would demonstrate structure invariance between the community and clinical samples and would differentiate both samples, with the clinical sample presenting more severe DESNOS symptoms than the community sample [ 2 , 8 ]; (c) females would experience more severe DESNOS symptoms than males [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ]; (d) victims of interpersonal trauma would present more severe DESNOS symptoms than those who had not experienced interpersonal trauma [ 11 ].…”

“…Research on DESNOS is still scarce while most research on trauma is related to PTSD. There is substantial evidence that females are more prone than males to developing PTSD after exposure to a traumatic event [ 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ], although males have a higher risk of experiencing a traumatic event in life [ 31 ]. Perhaps this latter difference is related to the type of trauma experienced, as males have been found to have greater exposure to war situations, to work, leisure and car accidents, while females are more likely to be at risk of sexual trauma [ 32 ].…”