Women's Post-Combat Stress Similar To Men

A new study finds that in the year after returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, male and female servicemembers had similar levels of combat-related stress.

This diverges slightly from previous studies, including a recent one finding that among servicemembers deployed to Afghanistan in the same period, women were more likely to have symptoms of PTSD, at 18.7 percent, compared to 8.7 percent of the men.

But the lead author of a study published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Dawne Vogt of the VA National Center for PTSD and Boston University School of Medicine, said, “Contrary to popular belief, women who go to war respond to combat trauma much like their male counterparts.”

Speaking of women in combat zones, a separate report by the Committee To Protect Journalists is the first comprehensive look at female journalists working in war-torn or lawless areas, spurred by Lara Logan’s sexual assault in Egypt. Many of the women interviewed for the report, including locally-born journalists, described how sexual violence was used as a threat to intimidate them from doing their work. They said they rarely reported threats or crimes, in part because they didn’t want to put their jobs at risk.

Study: Combat Stress Same For Men And Women [UPI]
a href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/female-journalists-face-sexual-threats-abroad-report-says/2011/06/06/AG1Bl2KH_story.html”>Female Journalists Face Sexual Threats Abroad, Report Says [WP]
The Silencing Crime: Sexual Violence And Journalists [CPJ]
Earlier: Should Women Serve In Special Forces?