Gender Differences in Relationship Patterns Between Adverse Psychiatric Experiences, Lifetime Trauma, and PTSD

SUMMARY We examined the interrelationships between gender, adverse psychiatric experiences, lifetime trauma, and PTSD among severely mentally ill patients via secondary analyses. Participants were 142 adult, psychiatric patients, randomly-selected from a public-sector setting. They completed self-report measures to assess for victimization during the course of their psychiatric care, lifetime victimization, and PTSD. There were a number of significant associations between psychiatric and lifetime victimization experiences among both men and women. However, victimization within the psychiatric setting was not significantly related to PTSD for either men or women. Replication and expansion of these findings is encouraged to promote safety in psychiatric settings.