Penn researchers have established that while men are subjected to more traumatic events, women are more likely to be diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

David Tolin of the Institute of Living and Psychiatry professor Edna Foa reviewed 290 studies conducted between 1980 and 2005 to determine whether men or women were more likely to experience potentially traumatic events and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Women were less likely than men to experience traumatic events like deaths, accidents, disasters, combat and war, but were more likely to suffer sexual trauma such as sexual assaults and child sexual trauma.

From these data, the researchers concluded that sexual trauma may cause more of the emotional suffering that can lead to a diagnosis.

However, when experiencing the same types of trauma as men, women showed higher rates of the disorder.