The results of the study suggest that religious activities and beliefs may be particularly compelling for persons who are experiencing more severe symptoms, and increased religious activity may be associated with reduced symptoms. Religion may serve as a pervasive and potentially effective method of coping for persons with mental illness, thus warranting its integration into psychiatric and psychological practice.
In the present study, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) prevalence rates were compared among 50 battered women and 37 maritally distressed women who had not experienced battering (N = 87). Participants were administered R. Spitzer and I. B. S. Williams's (1985) Structured Clinical Interview for the DSM-III-R (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [3rd ed., rev.]) to assess PTSD status and previous traumatic experiences in addition to other standardized measures of PTSD and violence exposure. Battered women exhibited significantly higher rates of PTSD than maritally distressed women (58% vs. 18.9%). Although both groups had similar rates of previous trauma experiences, women with a PTSD-positive status (both battered women and maritally distressed women) were significantly more likely to have experienced self-reported childhood sexual abuse and a higher overall number of previous traumas than those with a PTSD-negative status. Battering exposure and childhood sexual abuse predicted 37% of the variance in overall PTSD intensity levels.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.