Fig. 1

Sex-specific analyses reveal a higher prevalence of childhood sexual abuse in females, but not males, with auditory hallucinations (AH). This study investigated the influences of sex and childhood sexual abuse in individuals with auditory hallucinations. They found that individuals with auditory hallucinations were more likely to report childhood sexual abuse, relative to individuals with non-auditory hallucinations and healthy controls. Further sex-specific analyses found that these effects were driven entirely by females, and were absent in males. These results underscore the critical importance of sex-specific analyses in biomedical research

Figure reprinted from “Auditory hallucinations, childhood sexual abuse, and limbic gray matter volume in a transdiagnostic sample of people with psychosis” by Millman et al., 2022 [43]: Childhood sexual abuse exposure across clinical group and sex. Differences in exposure severity between (A) AH, NAH, and HC groups and between (B) AH,NAH, and HC groups by participant sex. Error bars represent standard deviations. AH, psychotic disorder with auditory hallucinations; CTQ childhood trauma questionnaire, HC healthy control, NAH psychotic disorder with no auditory hallucinations. *p < .05, **p < .01, **p < .001. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/