Post-traumatic stress may lead to heart disease

Older men with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, are at increased risk for developing coronary heart disease. PTSD may be best known as a consequence of combat exposure, but people can also develop the disorder after suffering other types of trauma, such as a car crash, fall or other accident. Symptoms include flashbacks to the incident, nightmares, sleep problems, depression, irritability and difficulty in concentrating. The following study demonstrates a prospective association between PTSD symptoms and coronary heart disease, eliminating the bias for depressive. Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston, USA, studied 1,946 older men from the Greater Boston area who served in the military and were assessed for PTSD in 1986 or 1990. The subjects were followed until 2001 for the occurrence of coronary heart disease. It was found that for each step up in PTSD level, using standard PTSD scales, the risk of having a fatal or non-fatal heart attack increased by 26 percent. The data suggests that prolonged stress and significant levels of PTSD symptoms may increase the risk for coronary heart disease in older male veterans. The above results are provocative and suggest that exposure to trauma and prolonged stress increase the risk for serious mental health problems, as well as heart attack.