Sexual assault preceding comorbid Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Substance Use Disorders (SUDs) has been widely established, but the nuanced influences of the gender of the victim and perpetrator bare further examination. This study sought to examine which victim/perpetrator gender dyad (female/male, female/female, male/female, male/male) leads to a greater risk of comorbidity of PTSD and SUD. Men are more likely to have an SUD, but women are more likely to turn to substances because of trauma (Nida, 2016; Truchman, 2010). While many other factors play into the development of PTSD/SUD comorbidity, research suggests that that sexual trauma is an especially high-risk factor (Dworkin et al., 2017). The most common victimization dyad is female victims with male preparators (female/male dyad) (Dube et al., 2005). Thus, the study hypothesized that female victims with male perpetrators (the female/male dyad) would exhibit the highest PTSD/SUD comorbidity.

Potential participants were recruited from the ADM Crisis Center in Summit County, Ohio. The center offers detoxification to patients presenting with an SUD upon admission, and more than half of our sample also met diagnostic criteria for comorbid-PTSD. Participants were administered questionnaires, including the PCL (PTSD screen), ASSIST (SUD inventory), and SES-SFV (sexual trauma inventory) to gather data. Data is in the process of being analyzed, and will be presented at the poster presentation.