Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms and Precombat Sexual and Physical Abuse in Desert Storm Veterans

The purpose of this research was to study the association between precombat sexual and physical abuse and combat-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms in a clinical sample of male and female Desert Storm veterans. Two hundred ninety-seven veterans provided data on precombat sexual and physical abuse, precombat psychiatric problems, sociodemographics, Desert Storm combat exposure, and PTSD symptomatology using the Mississippi Scale. Men reported significantly higher levels of combat exposure, and women described significantly more frequent precombat abuse. Precombat-abused veterans reported more frequent precombat psychiatric histories. Analysis of covariance revealed that gender significantly modified the impact of precombat abuse on combat-related and other PTSD symptomatology after adjusting for precombat psychiatric history and level of combat exposure. Specifically, females describing precombat abuse reported much greater PTSD symptomatology than did females denying precombat abuse. These results in conjunction with previous research suggest that a relationship between precombat abuse and combat-related PTSD may exist. Prospective, longitudinal studies of both men and women are needed.