Previous studies have suggested childhood adversities and negative family environment as risk factors for AD and PTSD (Bromet et al., 1998; Brewin et al., 2000; Ozer et al., 2003). To investigate their role in the course of comorbidity of PTSD-AD, this study also incorporated these measures. Childhood adversities include verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect. Respondents completed a series of questions regarding exposure to childhood abuses occurring before age 18. Response categories for most scale items were 1 = never, 2 = almost never, 3 = sometimes, 4 = fairly often, and 5 = very often. Response category values were summed across items to produce scales. Verbal and physical abuse was assessed using questions from the Conflict Tactics Scale (Straus, 1979). Verbal abuse items assessed how often caregivers insulted, swore at, said hurtful things, threatened respondents with violence or acted in any other way that made respondents afraid that they would be physically hurt or injured. Physical abuse items ascertained the frequency of caregiver violent behavior toward the respondent such as pushing, grabbing, shoving, slapping or hitting so
