Gender differences in the relationship between trauma and relapse could explain some of these divergent findings. Only a few studies using heterogeneous methodologies have examined gender differences in this relationship, and, not surprisingly, the results are mixed. Although several studies have not found evidence of gender differences in the relationship between childhood10,11 or adult8 trauma and post-treatment relapse to alcohol or other drugs, results of a recent study suggested that severity of childhood trauma predicted post-treatment relapse to cocaine use in women, but not in men.13 Due to the small number of studies in this area and mixed results, further exploration of this topic is clearly warranted.
