Our study also found that the majority of individuals with PTSD-AD had a history of childhood verbal abuse, physical abuse or neglect, and that half of the individuals with PTSD-AD had a history of vulnerable family environment, parental history of alcohol use disorder and antisocial personality disorder or a partner with alcohol problem. These rates were significantly higher than those among individuals with PTSD only or AD only. Childhood maltreatment experiences may contribute to future emotion dysregulation, heightened physiological responsivity, interfere with the development of coping mechanisms psychopathology (Heim and Nemeroff, 2001), predispose to current life stressors and poor social support in adulthood (Solomon et al., 1988), and increase the risk of multiple psychiatric disorders (van der Kolk and Fisler, 1994). Moreover, a history of parental alcohol use disorders can also increase children’s later risk of developing alcohol misuse (Chassin et al., 1999; Jennison and Johnson, 2001), and PTSD (Emery et al., 1991) through childhood stress and hereditary vulnerability as well (Milne et al., 2009). Our findings are consistent with the existing literature on the close relationship between childhood experiences
