Trauma, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptom Clusters, And Physical Health Symptoms in Postabused Women

Stephanie J. Woods and N. Margaret Wineman

The purpose of this research is to evaluate PTSD symptom clusters (avoidance of the situation, hyper-arousal, and intrusions) to physical health symptoms in women who have suffered abuse. The researchers are also interested in how lifetime trauma is related to the PTSD symptom clusters and physical health symptoms. The researchers make a fair case for the aims of the current study by pointing out that the majority of previous research investigating these relationships has been performed on male combat veterans (although they do discuss research with female veterans) and that a significant proportion of women in abusive relationships suffer from PTSD. Here you might be tempted to draw the conclusion that if PTSD war veterans experience health symptoms so should abused women, but this might not follow. Moreover, they do...
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