Determinants of the development of post-traumatic stress disorder, in the general population
Open accessAbstract
Purpose To assess (1) the lifetime prevalence of exposure both to trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); (2) the risk of PTSD by type of trauma; and (3) the determinants of the development of PTSD in the community.Methods The Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies was administered to a random sample of an urban area (N = 3,691).Results (1) The lifetime prevalence estimates of exposure to trauma and PTSD were 21.0 and 5.0%; respectively, with a twice as high prevalence of PTSD in women compared to men despite a similar likelihood of exposure in the two sexes; (2) Sexual abuse was the trauma involving the highest risk of PTSD; (3) The risk of PTSD was most strongly associated with sexual abuse followed by preexisting bipolar disorder, alcohol dependence, antisocial personality, childhood separation anxiety disorder, being victim of crime, witnessing violence, Neuroticism and Problem-focused coping strategies. After adjustment for these characteristics, female sex was no longer found to be significantly associated with the risk of PTSD.Conclusions The risk for the development of PTSD after exposure to traumatic events is associated with several factors including the type of exposure, preexisting psychopathology, personality features and coping strategies which independently contribute to the vulnerability to PTSD.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are associated with both childhood physical abuse (CPA) and antisocial (AS) traits.
“Posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) are associated with both childhood physical abuse (CPA) and antisocial (AS) traits”
From Childhood Physical Abuse and Antisocial Traits: Mediating Role of Posttraumatic Stress Symptom Clusters (2022) · cites this paper as Perrin et al., 2014
Cites
Hu, L.-T., & Bentler, P. M. (1998) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.3.4.424 · Cited by 12,298 · see citing works
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey
Kessler, R. C. (1995) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1995.03950240066012 · Cited by 10,379 · see citing works
Four Factor Index of Social Status
Paschou, R. (1975) · Cited by 6,989 · see citing works
Endicott, J. (1978) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1978.01770310043002 · Cited by 5,686 · see citing works
Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults.
Brewin, C. R., Andrews, B., & Valentine, J. D. (2000) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037//0022-006x.68.5.748 · Cited by 5,254 · see citing works
Meta-analysis of risk factors for posttraumatic stress disorder in trauma-exposed adults
Brewin, C. R., Andrews, B., & Valentine, J. D. (2000) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.68.5.748 · Cited by 5,243 · see citing works
Four Factor Index of Social Status [1975]
Hollingshead, A. B. (1975) · Cited by 5,151 · see citing works
Predictors of posttraumatic stress disorder and symptoms in adults: a meta-analysis
Ozer, E. J., Best, S. R., Lipsey, T. L., & Weiss, D. S. (2003) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.129.1.52 · Cited by 3,322 · see citing works
Evaluation of goodness-of-fit indices for structural equation models.
Mulaik, S. A., James, L. R., Alstine, J. V., Bennett, N., Lind, S., & Stilwell, C. D. (1989) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.105.3.430 · Cited by 2,927 · see citing works
The detection of psychiatric illness by questionnaire
Levy, R. (1973) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/0022-3999(73)90039-1 · Cited by 2,707 · see citing works
Traumatic Events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in an Urban Population of Young Adults
Breslau, N. (1991) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1991.01810270028003 · Cited by 2,544 · see citing works
Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in the Community: The 1996 Detroit Area Survey of Trauma
Breslau, N., Kessler, R. C., Chilcoat, H. D., Schultz, L. R., Davis, G. C., & Andreski, P. (1998) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.55.7.626 · Cited by 2,407 · see citing works
Tolin, D. F., & Foa, E. B. (2006) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.132.6.959 · Cited by 2,197 · see citing works
Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies
Nürnberger, J. I. (1994) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1994.03950110009002 · Cited by 2,066 · see citing works
The Family History Method Using Diagnostic Criteria
Andreasen, N. C. (1977) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1977.01770220111013 · Cited by 1,903 · see citing works
Garland, E. L., Fredrickson, B., Kring, A. M., Johnson, D. P., Meyer, P. S., & Penn, D. L. (2010) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2010.03.002 · Cited by 1,035 · see citing works
Full and partial posttraumatic stress disorder: findings from a community survey
(1997) · American Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1176/ajp.154.8.1114 · Cited by 1,013 · see citing works
Perkonigg, A., Kessler, R. C., Storz, S., & Wïttchen, H. (2000) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1034/j.1600-0447.2000.101001046.x · Cited by 971 · see citing works
The Epidemiology of Trauma, PTSD, and Other Posttrauma Disorders
Breslau, N. (2009) · Trauma, Violence, & Abuse · doi:10.1177/1524838009334448 · Cited by 810 · see citing works
Sex differences in posttraumatic stress disorder
Breslau, N. (1997) · Archives of General Psychiatry · doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1997.01830230082012 · Cited by 783 · see citing works
CREAMER, M., Burgess, P. M., & McFARLANE, A. C. (2001) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291701004287 · Cited by 757 · see citing works
Firmann, M., Mayor, V., Marques-Vidal, P. M., Bochud, M., Pécoud, A. R., Hayoz, D., Paccaud, F. M., Preisig, M., Song, K. S., Yuan, X., et al. (2008) · BMC Cardiovascular Disorders · doi:10.1186/1471-2261-8-6 · Cited by 715 · see citing works
Self-citationTrauma exposure and post‐traumatic stress disorder in the general population
Frans, Ö., Rimmö, P. ‐., Åberg, L., & Fredrikson, M. (2005) · Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica · doi:10.1111/j.1600-0447.2004.00463.x · Cited by 580 · see citing works
Post‐Traumatic Stress Disorder in Canada
Van Ameringen, M., Mancini, C., Patterson, B., & Boyle, M. H. (2008) · CNS Neuroscience & Therapeutics · doi:10.1111/j.1755-5949.2008.00049.x · Cited by 408 · see citing works
The lifetime prevalence of traumatic events and posttraumatic stress disorder in the Netherlands
de Vries, G., & Olff, M. (2009) · Journal of Traumatic Stress · doi:10.1002/jts.20429 · Cited by 390 · see citing works
Bromet, E. J., Sonnega, A. J., & Kessler, R. C. (1998) · American Journal of Epidemiology · doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a009457 · Cited by 370 · see citing works
Preisig, M., Fenton, B. T., Matthey, M., Berney, A., & Ferrero, F. (1999) · European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.1007/s004060050084 · Cited by 307 · see citing works
Self-citationTrauma Exposure and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Study of Youths in Urban America
Breslau, N. (2004) · Journal of Heredity · doi:10.1093/jurban/jth138 · Cited by 306 · see citing works
The Aetiology of Post-traumatic Stress Disorders Following a Natural Disaster
McFARLANE, A. C. (1988) · The British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.152.1.116 · Cited by 290 · see citing works
Yehuda, R., Halligan, S. L., & Bierer, L. M. (2001) · Journal of Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3956(01)00032-2 · Cited by 275 · see citing works
Depression in Children and Adolescents
Garber, J. (2006) · American Journal of Preventive Medicine · doi:10.1016/j.amepre.2006.07.007 · Cited by 263 · cited 1× · see citing works
“Stable individual factors including the level of Neuroticism and certain coping styles, which are thought to develop during childhood and adolescence, are likely to increase vulnerability to stressful events [56], but they also predispose to mood or anxiety psychopathology [57], which further increases the vulnerabili…”
BackgroundPreisig, M., Waeber, G., Vollenweider, P., Bovet, P., Rothen, S., Vandeleur, C., Guex, P., Middleton, L., Waterworth, D., Mooser, V., et al. (2009) · BMC Psychiatry · doi:10.1186/1471-244x-9-9 · Cited by 237 · see citing works
Self-citationPost-traumatic stress disorder: The role of trauma, pre-existing psychiatric disorders, and gender
Hapke, U., Schumann, A., Rumpf, H.-J., John, U., & Meyer, C. (2006) · European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.1007/s00406-006-0654-6 · Cited by 201 · see citing works
Personality Predictors of Injury-Related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Fauerbach, J. A., Lawrence, J., Schmidt, C. W., Munster, A. M., & Costa, P. T. (2000) · The Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease · doi:10.1097/00005053-200008000-00006 · Cited by 197 · see citing works
Cox, B. J., MacPherson, P. S. R., Enns, M. W., & McWilliams, L. A. (2004) · Behaviour Research and Therapy · doi:10.1016/s0005-7967(03)00105-0 · Cited by 179 · see citing works
Epidemiology of Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Mexico.
Norris, F. H., Murphy, A. D., Baker, C. K., Perilla, J. L., Rodriguez, F. G., & Rodriguez, J. D. J. G. (2003) · Journal of Abnormal Psychology · doi:10.1037/0021-843x.112.4.646 · Cited by 167 · see citing works
Kimerling, R. E., Ouimette, P. C., & Wolfe, J. (2002) · Medical Entomology and Zoology · Cited by 152 · see citing works
Maercker, A. R. A., Forstmeier, S., Enzler, A., Krüsi, G., Hörler, E., Maier, C., & Ehlert, U. (2007) · Comprehensive Psychiatry · doi:10.1016/j.comppsych.2007.07.002 · Cited by 149 · see citing works
Holeva, V., & Tarrier, N. (2001) · Journal of Psychosomatic Research · doi:10.1016/s0022-3999(01)00256-2 · Cited by 138 · see citing works
Epidemiology of trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and co-morbid disorders in Chile
Zlotnick, C., Johnson, J. E., Kohn, R., Vicente, B., Rioseco, P., & Saldivia, S. (2006) · Psychological Medicine · doi:10.1017/s0033291706008282 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Adoption results for self-reported personality: Evidence for nonadditive genetic effects?
Plomin, R. J., Corley, R., Caspi, A., Fulker, D. W., & DeFries, J. C. (1998) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-3514.75.1.211 · Cited by 111 · see citing works
Prevalence of exposure to potentially traumatic events and PTSD
Hepp, U., Gamma, A., Milos, G. F., Eich, D., Ajdacic‐Gross, V., Wulf Rössler, A., Angst, J., & Schnyder, U. (2005) · European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.1007/s00406-005-0621-7 · Cited by 93 · see citing works
The reliability of the SADS-LA in a family study setting
Leboyer, M., Maier, W., Teherani, M., Lichtermann, D., d’Amato, T., Franke, P. E., Lépine, J., Minges, J., & McGuffin, P. (1991) · European Archives of Psychiatry and Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.1007/bf02219716 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Lifetime traumatic experiences and their impact on PTSD: a general population study
Lukaschek, K., Kruse, J., Emeny, R. T., Lacruz, M. E., Rothe, A. V. E., & Ladwig, K. (2012) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-012-0585-7 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Berney, A., Preisig, M., Matthey, M., Ferrero, F., & Fenton, B. T. (2002) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/s0376-8716(01)00156-9 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Self-citationRothen, S., Vandeleur, C. L., Lustenberger, Y., Jeanprêtre, N., Ayer, E., Gamma, F., Halfon, O., Fornerod, D., Ferrero, F., & Preisig, M. (2009) · International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research · doi:10.1002/mpr.281 · Cited by 87 · see citing works
Self-citationInconsistency in reporting potentially traumatic events
Hepp, U., Gamma, A., Milos, G., Eich, D., Ajdacic-Gross, V., Rössler, W., Angst, J., & Schnyder, U. (2006) · British Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1192/bjp.bp.104.008102 · Cited by 79 · see citing works
Jeon, H. J., Suh, T., Lee, H. J., Hahm, B., Lee, J., Cho, S., Lee, Y. R., Chang, S. M., & Cho, M. J. (2006) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.20270 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
Amstadter, A. B., Aggen, S. H., Knudsen, G. P., Reichborn‐Kjennerud, T., & Kendler, K. S. (2012) · Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology · doi:10.1007/s00127-012-0537-2 · Cited by 70 · see citing works
Identifying Persons at Risk for PTSD After Trauma with TSQ in The Netherlands
Dekkers, A. M. M., Olff, M., & Näring, G. W. B. (2010) · Community Mental Health Journal · doi:10.1007/s10597-009-9195-6 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
The epidemiology of mood disorders
Merikangas, K. R., & Low, N. C. P. (2004) · Current Psychiatry Reports · doi:10.1007/s11920-004-0004-1 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
Rougemont-Buecking, A., Rothen, S., Jeanprêtre, N., Lustenberger, Y., Vandeleur, C. L., Ferrero, F., & Preisig, M. (2008) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2006.04.022 · Cited by 47 · see citing works
Self-citationIntrusive Traumatic Recollections and Comorbid Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Depressed Patients
Carlier, I. V. E., Voerman, B. E., & Gersons, B. P. R. (2000) · Psychosomatic Medicine · doi:10.1097/00006842-200001000-00004 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Vandeleur, C. L., Rothen, S., Jeanprêtre, N., et al. (2007) · Drug and Alcohol Dependence · doi:10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2007.05.023 · Cited by 35 · see citing works
Self-citationGenetic Epidemiology of Anxiety Disorders
Merikangas, K. R., & Low, N. C. P. (2005) · Handbook of experimental pharmacology · doi:10.1007/3-540-28082-0_6 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Familial Psychiatric Illness and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder
Dierker, L., & Merikangas, K. R. (2001) · The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry · doi:10.4088/jcp.v62n0909 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Gender and psychophysiology of PTSD.
Peirce, J. M., Newton, T. L., Buckley, T. C., et al. (2002) · Cited by 16 · see citing works
Bodmer, N. M., & Grob, A. (1996) · International Journal of Psychology · doi:10.1080/002075996401205 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Adults: Impact, Comorbidity, Risk Factors, and Treatment
Sareen, J. (2014) · The Canadian Journal of Psychiatry · doi:10.1177/070674371405900902 · Cited by 467 · see citing works
Exposures to potentially traumatic events among public safety personnel in Canada
Carleton, R. N., Afifi, T. O., Taillieu, T., Turner, S., Krakauer, R., Anderson, G. S., MacPhee, R. S., Ricciardelli, R., Cramm, H. A., Groll, D., et al. (2019) · Canadian Journal of Behavioural Science/Revue canadienne des sciences du comportement · doi:10.1037/cbs0000115 · Cited by 324 · see citing works
The neurobiological basis of sex differences in learned fear and its inhibition
Day, H. L. L., & Stevenson, C. W. (2020) · European Journal of Neuroscience · doi:10.1111/ejn.14602 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Comorbidity between Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Borderline Personality Disorder: A Review
Frías, Á., & Palma, C. (2015) · Psychopathology · doi:10.1159/000363145 · Cited by 114 · see citing works
Trauma-specific grey matter alterations in PTSD
Meng, L., Jiang, J., Jin, C., Liu, J., Zhao, Y., Wang, W., Li, K., & Gong, Q. (2016) · Scientific Reports · doi:10.1038/srep33748 · Cited by 71 · see citing works
PTSD and depression in adult survivors of flood fury in Kashmir: the payoffs of social support
Dar, K. A., Iqbal, N., Prakash, A., & Paul, M. A. (2018) · Psychiatry Research · doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2018.01.023 · Cited by 57 · see citing works
Public Safety Personnel’s interpretations of potentially traumatic events
Ricciardelli, R., Czarnuch, S., Afifi, T. O., Taillieu, T., & Carleton, R. N. (2020) · Occupational Medicine · doi:10.1093/occmed/kqaa007 · Cited by 40 · see citing works
Müller, M., Vandeleur, C., Rodgers, S., Rössler, W., Castelao, E., Preisig, M., & Ajdacic-Gross, V. (2015) · Child Abuse & Neglect · doi:10.1016/j.chiabu.2015.03.006 · Cited by 28 · see citing works
Self-citationFeinstein, A., Storm, H., Mead, J., & Sharkey, A. (2025) · European Journal of Psychotraumatology · doi:10.1080/20008066.2025.2522501 · Cited by 8 · see citing works
“…exploratory, we hypothesized that the frequency of harassment would be associated with more symptoms of psychopathology, and that women would be more symptomatic than men in keeping with the general psychiatry literature relating to depression, anxiety and PTSD (Kuehner, 2017; Perrin et al., 2014).”
Harris, C. E., Allbaugh, L. J., & Kaslow, N. J. (2022) · Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma · doi:10.1007/s40653-021-00364-y · Cited by 2 · see citing works
Buadze, A., Ajdacic-Gross, V., Müller, M., Xu, Y., Seifritz, E., Wagner, E.-Y. N., von Känel, R., Glaus, J., Ranjbar, S., Castelao, E., et al. (2026) · PLOS One · doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0340179 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citation
- Authors
- Perrin, M., Vandeleur, C. L., Castelao, E., Rothen, S., Glaus, J., Vollenweider, P., & Preisig, M.
- Affiliations
- Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Vandeleur, Caroline L.
- Venue
- Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology
- Published
- 2013-09-11
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 447-457
- ISSN
- 0933-7954 (ISSN-L)
- 1433-9285
- OpenAlex
- W2117481869
- Cited by
- 197
- References
- 58
- Citations by year
- 2026: 9 · 2025: 12 · 2024: 19 · 2023: 14 · 2022: 16 · 2021: 19 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 12 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 16 · 2016: 18 · 2015: 17 · 2014: 8
- FWCI
- 15.93
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Licence
- Locations
- Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Archive ouverte UNIGE (University of Geneva) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- reroDoc Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- IRIS (submittedVersion)
- SERVAL (Université de Lausanne) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Child Abuse and Trauma
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Migration, Health and Trauma
- Keywords
- post-traumatic stress disorder, trauma exposure, lifetime prevalence, sexual abuse, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, antisocial personality, witnessing violence, neuroticism, problem-focused coping, sex differences, vulnerability factors, general population
- MeSH terms
- Neuroticism, Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Alcoholism, Anxiety Disorders, Cities, Family, Female, Humans, Life Change Events, Male, Middle Aged, Personality, Residence Characteristics, Risk Factors, Sexual Behavior, Stress Disorders, Post-Traumatic, Violence, Prevalence, Young Adult
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
