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The meta-analysis supports previous qualitative reviews, finding a positive association between PTSD and basal cardiovascular activity. The discussion addresses possible mechanisms of action and the health-related implications of these findings.

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Psychophysiological assessment data, including heart rate (HR), blood pressure, and frontal electromyogram (EMG) responses to mental arithmetic, idiosyncratic audiotape descriptions of motor vehicle accidents (MVAs), and a standard videotape of MVAs, were collected on 105 injured victims of recent MVAs and 54 non-MVA controls. Their data replicated data from an earlier report (Blanchard et al., 1994) and support the utility of HR response to the audiotaped description of the MVA as useful in distinguishing MVA victims with PTSD from those with subsyndromal PTSD and non-PTSD. At a 1-year follow-up, the psychophysiological assessment was repeated on 125 MVA victims; results showed a general diminution of psychophysiological responding. Initial psychophysiological assessment results predicted 1-year follow-up clinical status (continued PTSD or full or partial remission) for 37 or 48 individuals who initially met criteria for PTSD.

An examination of the relationships between health behaviors (preventive and risk-related), physician-diagnosed medical problems, role-functioning impairment because of physical morbidity, and post-traumatic stress disorder was conducted on a large cohort of consecutive treatment-seeking cases (N = 826) presenting to an outpatient Veterans Affairs post-traumatic stress disorder clinic. Results revealed that the sample rates of several medical conditions were markedly elevated when compared with general population rates for men of comparable age. The rates of smoking and other behavioral risk variables were greater than rates among men in the general population. Moreover, the majority of the sample did not engage in preventive health behaviors such as exercise and medical screening at levels consistent with health care guidelines. Physical role functioning indices of the SF-36 reveal greater role-functioning impairment because of physical morbidity in this psychiatric sample relative to the age adjusted general population norms. The health care implications of these data are discussed, as are areas for future research.