The Mediating Role of Poor Sleep Quality in the Relationship Between Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and Aggression in Combatants

Abstract

Introduction. Stress-related mental disorders pose a significant risk to a patient's social, emotional, and physical well-being. One of the most vulnerable categories of the population to the development of stress-related mental disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder, in wartime is military personnel who are constantly faced with events that threaten their lives and health. The most common complaints of combatants with PTSD include sleep disturbances and aggression. Therefore, we hypothesized that poor sleep quality may mediate the association between PTSD and aggression in combat veterans. Methods and materials. We conducted a clinical study of 45 combatants, who were divided into the following groups: group 1 (n=24) – combatants with PTSD, and group 2 (n=21) – combatants without stress-related mental disorders. We measured sleep quality by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and aggression by the Buss-Perry Aggression Questionnaire. Statistical analysis was performed using Jamovi Desktop. The mediation analysis was performed using the medmod 1.1.0 and advanced mediation models 1.0.5. Results. We found a strong statistically significant effect of PTSD on physical aggression (p<0.001). However, the mediating role of sleep was not found (p=0.264), as the effect of sleep disturbance on physical aggression was not confirmed (p=0.257), despite the strong effect of PTSD on sleep disturbance (p<0.001). It was found that the indirect effect of mediation through poor sleep quality accounted for 74.1% of the mediation of the relationship between PTSD and hostility. We established a partial mediation of the relationship between PTSD and aggressiveness by poor sleep quality. The direct effect accounts for 47.6% of the mediation, and the indirect effect through sleep disturbances accounts for 52.4%, which confirms the role of poor sleep quality as a mediator in this model. Concluions. Our findings emphasize that sleep disturbance is a significant symptom of PTSD that can affect other aspects of the disease in combatants. In this study, we demonstrate that poor sleep quality mediates hostility fully and general aggression partially in combatants with PTSD.