PTSD and Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease in Aging Veterans

Abstract

Findings highlight the longitudinal impact of PTSD on increasing the incidence of cardiovascular disease in older adults. This study implies the need for greater monitoring and treatment of PTSD in older persons, particularly older veterans, to assist in preventing adverse outcomes, such as cardiovascular disease, over the long term.

Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Patients With Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (Ptsd): A Narrative Review

“…Resilience is the capacity for and process of successful overcoming traumatic stress. Given a high prevalence of CVD in patients with PTSD, there is an urgent need for a more active monitoring, treatment (Beristianos et al 2016), increasing resilience and multidisciplinary management , Rosenbaum et al 2015 of PTSD patients, particularly war veterans. Potential biomarkers, as well as some personality and behavioral characteristics, may be useful for assessing both the CVD risks and the utility of potential interventions and resilience training.…”

“…American war veterans with PTSD, 55 years and older, had increased risk for CVD generally, and in particular myocardial infarction, and peripheral vascular disease as well as congestive heart failure, compared to veterans without PTSD (Beristianos et al 2016). Similarly, in a sample of 501 Croatian war veterans suffering from PTSD, aged between 36 and 65 years, the incidence of arterial hypertension, cardiac arrhythmias and myocardial infarction was significantly higher compared to a healthy control group (Britvi et al 2015).…”

Childhood and Adolescent Adversity and Cardiometabolic Outcomes: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association

“…Although investigators have examined posttraumatic stress disorder in relation to a range of health outcomes (including rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, heart disease, and cancer), some of the strongest empirical research, in terms of methodology and findings, has been with cardiometabolic diseases. 70,71 Numerous methodologically rigorous prospective population-based observational studies have found that posttraumatic stress disorder is associated with increased risk of incident CVD [72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84] and T2DM. [85][86][87] However, whether and how much of the relation between childhood adversity and cardiometabolic disease may be explained by posttraumatic stress disorder is unclear, especially because these studies have included traumatic events over the life course, with a substantial proportion of studies focused on veterans and military service-related trauma, not just adversity during childhood.…”

Post-traumatic stress disorder and cardiometabolic disease: improving causal inference to inform practice

“…While investigators have examined PTSD in relation to a range of health outcomes (including rheumatoid arthritis, stroke, heart disease, and cancer), some of the strongest empirical research—in terms of methodology and findings—has been with cardiometabolic diseases (Lohr et al , 2015). Numerous methodologically rigorous prospective population-based observational studies have found PTSD is associated with increased risk of incident cardiovascular disease (CVD) (Beristianos et al , 2014, Boscarino, 2006, 2008, Boscarino and Chang, 1999, Chen et al , 2015, Gradus et al , 2015, Jordan et al , 2011, Kubzansky et al , 2009, Kubzansky et al , 2007, Roy et al , 2015, Scherrer et al , 2010, Sumner et al , 2015, Vaccarino et al , 2013) and type 2 diabetes (T2D) (Boyko et al , 2010, Roberts et al , 2015, Vaccarino et al , 2014), even after adjusting for depression (see Table 1). …”