The results of the study supported our exploratory hypothesis that both trauma history and current trauma symptoms would be associated with relapse to alcohol or other substance use in alcohol dependent women, but not in men. Our findings regarding the relationship between trauma history and relapse are consistent with those of another recent study indicating that severity of childhood trauma, as indicated by scores on the CTQ-SF, predicted cocaine relapse in women, but not in men, during a 90-day period following inpatient treatment.13 The results diverge from those of several other studies which found no gender differences in the relationship between lifetime10,11 or adult trauma8 and post-treatment substance use among individuals with alcohol dependence and other substance use disorders. However, two of these studies10,11 focused exclusively on physical and sexual abuse, and the third8 focused on the relationship between trauma and relapse among individuals with co-occurring psychiatric disorders including mood disorders, PTSD, and psychotic disorders. Thus, differences between the present study and these prior studies with discrepant results may be attributable to differences in the populations studied and the extensiveness of the trauma assessments administered.
