In our community-based group, we found high lifetime prevalence of substance dependent individuals living in the same area where the cocaine dependent cases recruited from treatment live. Subsequently, 19% of our community-based participants were cocaine dependent. Even after excluding these individuals from analyses, we found that trauma and PTSD rates in the community-based group dropped slightly, but remained higher than rates reported in previous studies. This has important implications for the community as a whole. Other community members who do not use drugs are being exposed to violence such as shootings and robberies, which may increase their risk of developing PTSD. Our study highlights not only the high rates of trauma and PTSD in cocaine dependent individuals but also the high prevalence of violence in their neighborhoods.
