Post-traumatic stress disorder
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How common is PTSD?

In the US, about 7.7 million people over the age of 18 have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).1

A study done in the US between 1990 and 1992 found that:2

  • About 8 in 100 people get PTSD at some point in their lives
  • Women are more than twice as likely as men to get PTSD. That means about 1 in 10 women will get PTSD compared with 1 in 20 men
  • About 6 in 10 people in the US have lived through or seen at least one frightening event.

We also know that about half of all people who have been raped get PTSD. This compares with about 8 in 100 people who live through a car accident.3



Sources for the information on this page:
  1. National Institute of Mental Health. The numbers count: mental disorders in America. June 2008. Available at http://www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/numbers.cfm (accessed on 2 September 2008).
  2. Kessler RC, Sonnega A, Bromet E, et al. Posttraumatic stress disorder in the National Comorbidity Survey. Archives of General Psychiatry. 1995; 52: 1048-1060. 7492257
  3. Yehuda R. Post-traumatic stress disorder. New England Journal of Medicine 2002; 346: 108-114. 11784878
This information was last updated in Sep 03, 2008