Sexual assault has been found consistently to be the most pathogenic stressor among participants of general population surveys (Breslau et al. 1991, 1998b; Kessler et al. 1995). The PTSD risk associated with sexual assault in NESARC, the sample used in this analysis, was much higher than the PTSD risk associated with accidents, disaster, or unexpected death of someone close, despite variability within event types (Table 1). Individual experiences within event types are heterogeneous. NESARC, like other epidemiological studies, did not gather detailed accounts that could be used to test subgroups within event types in terms of their pathogenicity.
