Gender and PTSD: different pathways to a similar phenotype

Whereas research supports the existence of a single posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) phenotype across women and men, there may be important gender differences in the pathophysiology of, or mechanisms underlying, the disorder. This paper reviews recent literature on gender differences in emotional, cognitive, and neurobiological factors, and their relations with PTSD and relevant comorbidities. Key findings and limitations from both human and animal studies are discussed. Overall, more work is needed that utilizes objective measures in addition to self-report. Studies explicitly examining gender differences and those examining mechanisms within single-gender samples each have the potential to improve our understanding of gender discrepancies in PTSD and inform tailored interventions for women and men.